July 2008
Dream Slogan for Trade Mark Refused
A company providing educational publishing and social services has had its Community trade mark application (which covers the 27 EU countries) for the slogan “DREAM IT! DO IT!” refused.
The slogan was intended to indicate to customers that the applicant’s services would help them fulfil their dreams and aspirations. However, the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (who deal with the Community trade marks) refused the application on the basis that the slogan was not distinctive and would not distinguish the services of the applicant company from those of other companies.
Briffa Comment:Obtaining trade mark registration of your slogan is beneficial as it would enable you to prevent another from using the same or similar slogan for the same or similar goods or services. However, as indicated by the example given above, applying to register a slogan as a trade mark can be risky and applications can be rejected for a number of reasons as listed in section 3 of the Trade Marks Act 1994. The most frequent reason is that the slogan is considered to be a commonplace, unoriginal phrase that has become customary in the current language, and other reasons include the slogan not being distinctive, or being deceptive or descriptive.
Therefore, if you want to register your slogan, and, more importantly, be able to enforce the registration, the slogan must be unique so that it enables consumers to distinguish your goods and services from another.
For further information on trade marks contact info@briffa.com.