Chewing gum company sought to register trademark “doublemint” in relation to a chewing gum. Held:
Facts
· “Doublemint”simply indicated a doubling of mint flavour
Ø The two individual words themselves were descriptive
Ø And word as a whole was no different from sum of its parts
– i.e. as only difference was that space between words had been subtracted
· Thus was descriptive of goods characteristics
Multiple Meanings
· Mark is excluded if at least one of its possible meanings is descriptive of goods
Ø Even if some of its other possible meanings are not descriptive
· Thus fact that there is ambiguity as to nature of mint involved (peppermint, spearmint) is irrelevant.
Futurity
· Trade mark may be refused even if mark is not actually descriptive of goods at time of application
Ø provided that it could be used for descriptive purposes
