Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2002:42
Date: 2002-02-27
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Fourth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Trade marks;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property
Concepts: Rights of the defence and procedural guarantees;Rights of the defence;Word marks;General
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Community trade mark — Decisions of the Office — Observance of the rights of the 
defence 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 73) 
2. Community trade mark — Definition and acquisition of the Community trade 
mark — Absolute grounds for refusal — Lack of distinctive character of a sign — 
Finding of absence of an additional element of imagination or a minimum amount of 
imagination insufficient to hold a sign to be devoid of any distinctive character 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 7(1)(b)) 
II - 705 
SUMMARY — CASE T-79/00 
3. Community trade mark — Definition and acquisition of the Community trade 
mark — Absolute grounds for refusal — Signs devoid of any distinctive char­
acter — 'LITE' 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 7(1)(b) and (2)) 
1. The rights of the defence, observance 
of which is a general principle of 
Community law laid down in 
Article 73 of Regulation No 40/94 on 
the Community trade mark, which 
provides that decisions of the Office 
for Harmonisation in the Internal 
Market (Trade Marks and Designs) 
are to be based only on reasons on 
which the parties have had an oppor­
tunity to present their comments, are 
infringed by a decision of a Board of 
Appeal of the Office which fails to 
accord the person concerned an oppor­
tunity to express his views on the 
absolute grounds for refusal of an 
application for registration of a Com­
munity trade mark which the Board 
applied of its own motion. 
(see paras 13-15) 
2. The absence of distinctive character 
within the meaning of Article 7(1)(b) 
of Regulation No 40/94 on the Com­
munity trade mark cannot arise merely 
from the finding that a sign lacks an 
additional element of imagination or a 
minimum amount of imagination. A 
Community mark is not necessarily a 
work of invention and is founded not 
on any element of originality or 
imagination, but on its ability to dis­
tinguish goods or services on the mar­
ket from goods or services of the same 
type offered by competitors. 
(see para. 30) 
3. The word mark 'LITE', registration of 
which is sought in respect of foodstuffs 
and catering services, is devoid of any 
d i s t i n c t i v e c h a r a c t e r u n d e r 
Article 7(1)(b) and (2) of Regulation 
No 40/94 on the Community trade 
mark. That word, which is created 
from a phonetic transcription of the 
English word 'light', is commonly used 
in the English-speaking part of the 
European Union as an everyday word 
in the food and catering industry to 
identify or distinguish a quality of 
foodstuffs. It serves only to inform the 
section of the public targeted about a 
characteristic of the goods or service at 
issue, namely the lightness of the food­
stuffs and of the dishes prepared and 
served in the catering service. 
(see paras 33-36, 39) 
II - 706