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Harmonisation in the Internal Market v Wm Wrigley Jr Company ( DOUBLEMINT) [2003] Case C-191/01 P

By Oxbridge Law TeamUpdated 04/01/2024 07:04

Judgement for the case Harmonisation in the Internal Market v Wm Wrigley Jr Company ( DOUBLEMINT)

  • Chewing gum company sought to register trademark “doublemint” in relation to a chewing gum. 

Facts

  • “Doublemint” simply indicated a doubling of mint flavour

    • The two individual words themselves were descriptive

    • 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, 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

    • Provided that it could be used for descriptive purposes

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