The Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club Ltd v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) (T-214/04)

Judgment of 21 Feb 2006

law://eu/cjeu/2004/t-214-04/para_43@2026-11-13

43Thirdly, the Court considers that the argument that, were it not to be annulled, the Board of Appeals decision would have the effect of according the intervener an unfair and unjustifiable monopoly over the polo player device, and would enable it to prevent any later application containing a similar logo cannot be accepted. It must be observed, in that regard, that the Board of Appeal was entirely correct in maintaining that the device of a polo player is intrinsically highly distinctive in relation to the Class 3 goods for which registration of the mark is sought and which are currently covered by the earlier UK registration because, in relation to those products, the device of a polo player is an image with high imaginative content. Such a device must be regarded as arbitrary for the goods in question and deserves to be protected against subsequent applications depicting confusingly similar devices. Indeed, the advantage of the legal regime of the Community trade mark lies precisely in the fact that it enables holders of an earlier trade mark to oppose the registration of later marks which take unfair advantage of the distinctiveness or repute of the earlier trade mark. Hence, far from according an unfair and unjustifiable monopoly to the proprietors of an earlier mark, that regime enables those proprietors to protect and exploit the substantial investment made to promote their earlier mark.

The Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club Ltd v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) (T-214/04)

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