5 parallel stripes on a shoe: nothing more than a rather banal generic embellishment?
Fresh and interesting article posted on the IPKat about a 5 parallel stripes mark. The question at stake: Can the stripes, as placed on the side of the shoe (see below), immediately be apprehended as constituting an indication of the commercial origin of the goods concerned? Happy reading! "In its judgment of 4 December 2015 in case T-3/15 the General Court upheld OHIM’s assessment that the below mark lacks distinctive character and added some more pages to the history of position marks in Europe. In 2013, K-Swiss Inc., filed with OHIM an application for protection in the European Union of International Registration No 932758 (above depicted) in connection with ‘athletic shoes, namely tennis shoes, basketball shoes, cross-country and jogging shoes and casual shoes’, in Class 25. Both the Examiner and, on appeal, OHIM’s Second Board of Appeal refused registration of the mark on the basis of Art. 7(1)(b) of Regulation No 207/09. The Board ...