Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2002:44
Date: 2002-02-27
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Fourth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Trade marks;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property
Concepts: Registration procedure;Word marks
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded;Action for annulment - successful
Origin: Sweden

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Community trade mark — Definition and acquisition of the Community trade 
mark — Absolute grounds for refusal — Marks composed exclusively of signs or 
indications which may serve to designate the characteristics of a product — 'ELLOS' 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 7(1)(c) and (2)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-219/00 
2. Community trade mark — Registration procedure — Application to register a sign in 
respect of several categories of goods or services — Separate analysis of each good or 
service or category thereof 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Arts 17 and 44) 
1. Under Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation 
No 40/94 on the Community trade 
mark, 'trade marks which consist 
exclusively of signs or indications 
which may serve, in trade, to designate 
the... intended purpose... of the goods 
or of rendering of the service, or other 
characteristics of the goods or service' 
are not to be registered. Furthermore, 
Article 7(2) of Regulation No 40/94 
provides that '[p]aragraph 1 shall apply 
notwithstanding that the grounds of 
non-registrability obtain in only part of 
the Community'. 
As regards the registration of the word 
ELLOS sought in respect of 'clothing, 
footwear, headgear', that word, as the 
third person plural pronoun in the 
Spanish language, may serve, in the 
Spanish-speaking part of the Commu­
nity, to designate the purpose of those 
goods, namely 'clothing, footwear, 
headgear' for male customers. The 
conveying of the information about 
that intended use represents an essen­
tial characteristic of the goods in ques­
tion which is taken into account by the 
section of the public targeted so that 
the word ELLOS enables that public to 
establish immediately, and without 
further thought, a specific and direct 
relationship between the sign and the 
'clothing, footwear, headgear' for male 
customers which are included in the 
category 'clothing, footwear, head­
gear'. The link thus established appears 
sufficiently close to be caught by the 
prohibition laid down in the above-
mentioned provisions. 
As regards the registration of the same 
word in respect of 'customer services 
for mail-order sales', the public tar­
geted will not immediately, and with­
out further thought, establish a specific 
and direct relationship between those 
services and the word 'ELLOS'. The 
evocation of those services or one of 
their characteristics, to the section of 
the public targeted, is, at most, indirect 
and does not enable that public 
immediately, and without further 
thought, to perceive a description of 
the services in question or of one of 
their characteristics, in particular their 
intended use so that the relationship 
between the word ELLOS and 'cus­
tomer services for mail-order sales' is 
too indeterminate and vague to be 
caught by the prohibition laid down 
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ELLOS v OHIM (ULLOS) 
in Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation 
No 40/94. 
(see paras 26, 33-35, 37, 42-44) 
2. In examining an application for a 
Community trade mark in which regis­
tration is sought in respect of several 
categories of goods or services, there 
are no categories which are subordi­
nate, or ancillary, to others. The fact 
that an application for a Community 
trade mark may subsequently be 
restricted, as regards the list of prod­
ucts or services contained therein, pur­
suant to Article 44 of Regulation 
No 40/94, or that the trade mark may 
be transferred in respect of some of the 
goods or services under Article 17 of 
that regulation confirms that each 
product or service, or category thereof, 
must be analysed separately. 
(see para. 41) 
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