Gemeenschapsmerk – Beroep ingesteld door de houder van het beeldmerk dat vijf strepen op een sportschoen weergeeft, voor waren van klasse 25, en strekkende tot vernietiging van beslissing R 174/20112 van de tweede kamer van beroep van het BHIM houdende verwerping van het beroep tegen de beslissing van de nietigheidsafdeling tot toewijzing van de vordering tot nietigverklaring die tegen dat merk is ingesteld door Künzli SwissSchuh AG.
Het beroep wordt afgewezen. Het BHIM heeft terecht geoordeeld dat het beeldmerk van vijf strepen op een sportschoen onderscheidend vermogen mist. Het feit dat het beeldmerk in acht andere lidstaten is ingeschreven vormt geen bewijs van het onderscheidend vermogen.
49 Secondly, the applicant relies on the fact that registrations of the mark at issue in eight Member States prove its distinctive character.
50 In this connection, registrations already made in Member States are only one factor which may be taken into account in connection with the registration of a Community trade mark, the mark for which registration is sought having to be assessed on the basis of the relevant EU rules, and it follows that OHIM is under no obligation to follow the assessment of the competent national authorities or to register the mark at issue as a Community trade mark on the basis of those considerations (Case C 98/11 P Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli v OHIM [2012] ECR, paragraph 50).
51 In the present case, the fact that the sign is registered as a trade mark in eight Member States does not enable the applicant to prove that the Board of Appeal concluded, incorrectly, that the mark at issue lacked distinctive character.
52 Thirdly, as regards the argument that the Board of Appeal ignored the fact that the use of figurative elements was not typical for all kind of shoes, it must be held that, although the Board of Appeal did not expressly refer to types of shoes other than sports and leisure shoes, it none the less did not intend to restrict its assessment of the distinctive character of the mark at issue to those categories of shoes.
54 The applicant had also developed a line of argument relating to the sports and leisure shoe sector, in which it maintained that manufacturers of sports and leisure shoes attached to the surface of the shoes marks which also had a decorative function, so that consumers in that sector were accustomed to perceiving decorative elements as indicators of the commercial origin of the products (point 10 of...
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IEPT20140613, GEU, K-Swiss v BHIM
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