Brussels, 19/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a ruling delivered on Thursday 19 November, the Court of First Instance decided that the term “CANNABIS” could not be registered as a Community trade mark, since it is one that the average consumer could interpret as a description of the product. This ruling upholds the decision of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) which, in 2003, declared invalid the registration of this trade mark obtained by Mr Giampetro Torresan (case T-234/06).
This annulment of the registration followed an application from German brewer Klosterbrauerei Weissenohe GmbH & Co. KG, which markets beverages flavoured with hemp on the labels of which the word “cannabis” appears. Torresan challenged the annulment in the Court of First Instance, arguing that he was entitled to register the trade mark since: the word “cannabis” has no connection with beer and beverages in general; the sign “CANNABIS” had acquired considerable renown on the Italian market with the marketing of a beer of that name in Italy since 1996. The Court said, firstly, that the word “cannabis”, also referred to as “hemp” is the term used to designate either a plant of the same name, or a narcotic banned by a great number of member states (the therapeutic use of which is under discussion). The ruling further states that cannabis is used in the food sector in various forms (oils, herbal teas) and preparations (teas, pastries, bakery and biscuits, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, etc.) although these products contained only very low concentrations of the plant's active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and, therefore, have no psychotropic effects.
The Court states, too, that the word “cannabis” is, above all, a common noun which may designate the characteristics of product and not where it came from or how it was produced. An “average consumer who is reasonably well-informed and reasonably observant and circumspect” may be misled, for example, into overestimating the intoxicating effect of the product. The Court did not comment on whether customers of that sort might be the group targeted by “CANNABIS” beers.
For these reasons, the Court rejected Torresan's appeal and upheld the OHIM decision to declare “CANNABIS” invalid as a trade mark for beverages potentially containing hemp. (C.D./transl.rt)