Judgment_paragraph 18 · Devin AD v European Union Intellectual Property Office (T-122/17)

18According to settled case-law, the signs and indications covered by Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation No 207/2009 are those which may serve in normal usage from the point of view of the relevant public to designate, either directly or by reference to one of their characteristics, the goods or services in respect of which registration is sought or contested (see, to that effect, judgments of 20 September 2001, Procter & Gamble v OHIM, C‑383/99 P, EU:C:2001:461, paragraph 39, and of 10 September 2015, Laverana v OHIM (BIO organic), T‑610/14, not published, EU:T:2015:613, paragraph 14). It follows that, for a sign to be caught by the prohibition set out in that provision, there must be a sufficiently direct and specific link between the sign and the goods or services in question to enable the relevant public immediately to perceive, without further thought, a description of the goods or services in question or of one of their characteristics (judgments of 22 June 2005, Metso Paper Automation v OHIM (PAPERLAB), T‑19/04, EU:T:2005:247, paragraph 25, and of 7 December 2017, Colgate-Palmolive v EUIPO (360°), T‑332/16, not published, EU:T:2017:876, paragraph 15). It is sufficient that a ground of refusal or a ground of invalidity exists in relation to a non-negligible part of the target public and it is unnecessary to examine whether other consumers belonging to the relevant public were also aware of that sign (see judgment of 6 October 2017, Karelia v EUIPO (KARELIA), T‑878/16, not published, EU:T:2017:702, paragraph 27 and the case-law cited).