Judgment_paragraph 52 · PepsiCo, Inc. v European Union Intellectual Property Office (T-82/17)

52Communication No 2/12 of the Executive Director of EUIPO of 20 June 2012 concerning the use of class headings in lists of goods and services in respect of Community trade mark applications and registrations, while repealing Communication No 4/03, defined a literal approach, in point VIII, consisting of giving the terms of a general indication their natural and usual meaning. The second paragraph of Part II(i) of Communication No 1/13 of the Executive Director of EUIPO of 26 November 2013 confirmed that that approach applied including when the application for registration covered only some of the general indications of a class heading. Finally, the legislature confirmed that so-called ‘literal’ approach by the amendment made to Article 28(5) of Regulation No 207/2009 by Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2015 amending Regulation No 207/2009 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 2868/95 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 on the Community trade mark, and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 2869/95 on the fees payable to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OJ 2015 L 341, p. 21), which provides that ‘the use of ... general indications of the class headings of the Nice Classification ... shall be interpreted as including all the goods ... clearly covered by the literal meaning of the indication’.