Order — ECLI:EU:C:2004:75
Date: 2004-02-05
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: Appeals;Descriptive marks
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded

Summary of the Order 
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 goods or services — 
Aim — Requirement of free availability 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 7(1) (c)) 
I - 1461 
SUMMARY — CASE C-150/02 P 
2. Appeals — Grounds — Review by the Court of justice of the appraisal of the facts 
submitted to the Court of First Instance — Excluded — Sign applied for as a 
Community trade mark 
(Art. 225 EC; EC Statute of the Court of justice, Art. 51) 
1. By prohibiting the registration as a 
Community trade mark of signs or 
indications which may serve, in trade, 
to designate the characteristics of the 
goods or services for which registration 
is sought, Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation 
No 40/94 pursues an aim which is in 
the general interest, namely that such 
signs or indications may be freely used 
by all. That provision accordingly pre­
cludes such signs or indications being 
reserved to a single undertaking as a 
result of the registration of the trade 
mark. 
(see paras 24, 25) 
2. The Court of First Instance's assess­
ment of the facts in an action for 
annulment brought against the decision 
of a Board of Appeal of the Office for 
Harmonisation in the Internal Market 
(Trade Marks and Designs), which 
leads it to consider that a sign for 
which registration is sought 'does not 
appear unusual for the relevant con­
sumers', is not a point of law which is 
subject, as such, to review by the Court 
of Justice on appeal. 
(see paras 29, 30) 
I - 1462