{"id":5032,"date":"2017-02-24T17:23:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T17:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplylaw.waydevelopers.com\/england-wales\/wiki\/intellectual-property-applying-for-trademarks\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T16:28:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T16:28:59","slug":"intellectual-property-applying-for-trademarks","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/simply.law\/england-wales\/articles\/intellectual-property-applying-for-trademarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold Ups on the Electric Highway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The need to exercise care in applying for trademarks has again been highlighted by a recent decision of the EU General Court in the case of Vince v EUIPO<\/em><\/u>.\u00a0Mr Vince, the founder and CEO of Ecotricity and champion of green energy filed an application for an EU trademark for ELECTRIC HIGHWAY in 2012 to cover services relating to the transmission, distribution and supply of electricity and hydro-electricity, storage, transportation and delivery of electricity and transmission and supply of electricity for vehicles.\u00a0The brand is used by Mr Vince\u2019s company in connection with the provision of an electric car-charging network at motorway stations across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His application for protection of the brand was rejected by the trademark examiner and an appeal to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) was filed in 2014.\u00a0That appeal was dismissed in 2015 as the mark was a simple combination of words that would immediately be understood by owners of electric vehicles as describing a road with vehicle charging stations at regular intervals.\u00a0The mark was ruled devoid of distinctive character and descriptive.<\/p>\n

The EU General Court agreed with the Board of Appeal \u2013 the relevant public would understand the mark applied for to be descriptive of the services involved \u2013 and so dismissed the appeal and ordered Mr Vince to pay EUIPO\u2019s costs.<\/p>\n

Registration of a trademark would no doubt have been very valuable for Mr Vince and his Ecotricity business but marks that are descriptive or lack distinctive character are simply not registrable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The case of Vince v EUIPO has highlighted the need to exercise care in applying for trademarks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":7975,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12346],"tags":[11947,11946,11949,11948,8471,9302,11945],"class_list":{"0":"post-5032","1":"articles","2":"type-articles","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-intellectual-property","8":"tag-ecotricity","9":"tag-electric-highway","10":"tag-electric-vehicles","11":"tag-eu-general-court","12":"tag-intellectual-property","13":"tag-trademarks","14":"tag-vince-v-euipo"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHold Ups on the Electric Highway - Simply Law England Wales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Explore our comprehensive collection of legal articles covering various topics to help you navigate the complexities of the law. 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