Although the various grounds for refusal are independent of each other, common principles can be identified.
4.3: Common principles of absolute grounds for refusal
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Table of Contents
- 1: Overview of trademark and other designation rights
- 1.1: The concept of trade mark and designation law
- 1.2: The importance of trade marks and designation rights
- 1.3: Types of designation rights
- 1.4: Principles of priority and territoriality
- 1.5: Legal sources
- 1.6: Offices and courts
- 1.7: Impact of the CJEU
- 1.8: Sovereignty of the trade mark systems and legal effect
- 1.9: Literature and electronic resources
- 2: Capacity to be a trade mark and different types of trade marks
- 3: Ownership
- 4: Absolute grounds for refusal
- 4.1: Overview of the absolute grounds for refusal
- 4.2: Difference to relative grounds for refusal
- 4.3: Common principles of absolute grounds for refusal
- 4.3.1: Product context of trade mark law
- 4.3.2: Perception of the public in trade mark law
- 4.3.3: Dimensions of perception of the public
- 4.3.4: Overall impression and trade mark as such as the starting point for the assessment
- 4.3.5: Relevant date to be taken into account for the examination
- 4.3.6: Public interest as the basis for absolute grounds for refusal
- 4.3.7: Scope and standard of examination in the registration procedure
- 4.4: Distinctive character, descriptive indications, customary designations
- 4.4.1: Descriptive indications
- 4.4.1.1: Legal basis and public interest
- 4.4.1.2: Necessary degree of deviation from the usual, in particular abbreviations
- 4.4.1.3: Requirement of a certain directness of description
- 4.4.1.4: Ambiguous and vague signs
- 4.4.1.5: Significance of future possible uses
- 4.4.1.6: Insignificance of the consumer relevance of the described feature
- 4.4.1.7: Insignificance of synonyms and the absence of competitors
- 4.4.1.8: Special rules for geographical indications and other information on production or distribution sites
- 4.4.1.9: (No) special features for three-dimensional trade marks or figurative marks
- 4.4.2: Customary designations
- 4.4.3: Lack of distinctive character in other respects
- 4.4.3.1: Legal basis
- 4.4.3.2: Function of origin
- 4.4.3.3: Public interest
- 4.4.3.4: Relationship to abstract distinctiveness in the context of general trademark capacity
- 4.4.3.5: Significance of the actual use of the trademark and the trademark context
- 4.4.3.6: Degree of deviation from the standard in the sector required for distinctiveness
- 4.4.3.7: Indirect differentiation of the individual categories of trademarks due to different consumer perceptions
- 4.4.3.8: Word marks
- 4.4.3.9: Slogans, advertising slogans and other word sequences
- 4.4.3.10: Personal names
- 4.4.3.11: Word/figurative marks and figurative marks
- 4.4.3.12: Abstract color marks
- 4.4.3.13: Three-dimensional marks
- 4.4.3.14: Position marks
- 4.4.3.15: Sound marks
- 4.4.4: Obtaining a distinctive character through use
- 4.4.1: Descriptive indications
- 4.5: Shape of the goods or other characteristic feature
- 4.6: Trade mark application in bad faith
- 4.7: Other grounds for refusal
- 4.8: Telle-quelle protection pursuant to Art. 6quinquies Paris Convention
- 5: List of goods and services
- 6: Trademark protection without registration
- 7: Priority and seniority
- 8: Obligation to use
- 9: Duration of protection and renewal
- 10: The basics of trademark infringement
- 11: Identity of trade mark and product
- 12: Likelihood of confusion
- 13: Protection of the well-known trade mark
- 14: Statute of limitations, acquiescence, coexistence
- 15: Limitation of the effects of the trade mark
- 16: Exhaustion
- 17: Establishment and expiry of the right to the company designation
- 18: Scope of protection of company designations
- 19: Establishment and extinction of the right to a title to a work
- 20: Scope of protection of the right to a title to a work
- 21: Name rights
- 22: Internet domains
- 23: Geographical indications
- 24: Trade marks in legal transactions
- 25: Other business names in legal transactions
- 26: Supplementary claims under competition law and claims in tort
- 27: Legal consequences of trademark infringement
- 28: Proceedings at EUIPO
- 29: Proceedings at DPMA (German Patent and Trade Mark Office)
- 30: Procedure for international registration at WIPO
- 31: Court proceedings
- 32: Brand conception, strategy and evaluation
- 33: Checklist: trademark practice
- 34: Checklist: likelihood of confusion
- 35: Checklist: interim injunction proceedings
- 36: Checklist: border seizure