The City of Munich is trying to register the term ‘Oktoberfest’ as a EU trademark again. The last time the application was refused based on absolute grounds – lack of distinctiveness.
This time the City’s industrial property representatives are gathered evidences for acquired distinctiveness taking into account the fact that ‘Oktoberfest’ is the most famous beer festival in the world.
It will be interesting what EUIPO will decide in that regard in light of the fact that registration of such marks is really challenging because in most of the cases the relevant term has been used for many years freely and so it has become descriptive.
Nevertheless, according to the EU legislation even in such case the term can be registered in presence of strong evidence for acquired secondary distinctiveness among the relevant consumers.
Source: WIPR
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 