No exclamation mark for JOOP!

by Chris

In Case T‑191/08 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) declined JOOP!’s motion to permit registration of a single exclamation mark placed inside a rectangle as a Community trademark.

The court ruled that this mark lacks distinctive character and therefore can not be registered as a trademark, pursuant to Art 7 Sec. 1b) of Regulation No 40/94. The single exclamation mark is a mere eye catcher, not suitable to convey the origin of goods.

The court also rejected the point that the mark had acquired a secondary meaning as a trademark pursuant to Art. 7 Sec. 3 of Regulation 40/94. JOOP! not only failed to deliver proof in time. The documents provided referred to the German market only and not – as it would have been necessary – to all markets in all member states.

5 comments

1 Peter { 11.07.10 at 19:19 }

interesting article. look here to register trademark in Germany or other countries http://www.luebeckonline.com/eshop/en/trademark-registration.html

2 PKV Vergleich online { 05.30.11 at 08:57 }

I must say that now days, brands are really expensive, in the way that you cant have something without sharing something. I the case of Joop , there was a really missunderstanding this case, though i think the brand is not on the good road and has gain some really good popularity on the market. I think the court has had the best decision ever.

3 karnevalskostüm kinder { 10.23.11 at 05:42 }

Interesting article. the court also rejected the point that the mark had acquired a secondary meaing as trademark pursuant to art 7 sec 3 of regulation 40/94 joop. realy interesting article..
karnevalskostüm kinder

4 UGG Classic Tall 5815 { 12.01.11 at 10:15 }

This is an exceptional content, and I can agree with what was written here. I will be back to check out more of your articles soon. Thanks

5 Mark { 10.18.12 at 08:27 }

I think that all the big companies that are all known now, start the process from zero, most of them. What is the goodwill, of the business or how we evaluate the company, is just a process that we have to make according to each market stadards, or international ones. For example, JOOP, or JOOP! or those who are don’t see the difference, and say that a “!” is insignificant, well that makes the difference between them. Coming back to the value of a big company, or goodwill, how i call it, the branding or trademark is very important. The name worth more then 50% from all business, and people rarelly buy the quality…

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