CELEX: 62009TJ0310
Language: en
Date: 2011-04-12 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the General Court (Fourth Chamber) of 12 April 2011. # Fuller & Thaler Asset Management, Inc. v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM). # Community trade mark - Applications for Community word marks BEHAVIOURAL INDEXING and BEHAVIOURAL INDEX - Absolute ground for refusal - Descriptive character - Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009. # Cases T-310/09 and T-383/09.

Judgment of the General Court (Fourth Chamber) of 12 April 2011 – Fuller & Thaler Asset Management v OHIM (BEHAVIOURAL INDEXING
            and BEHAVIOURAL INDEX)
      (Cases T-310/09 and T-383/09)
      Community trade mark – Applications for Community word marks BEHAVIOURAL INDEXING and BEHAVIOURAL INDEX – Absolute ground for refusal – Descriptive character – Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009)
      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 (Council Regulation No 207/2009,
            Art. 7(1)(c)) (see paras 33, 44)
      2.                     Community trade mark – Procedural provisions – Examination of the facts of the Office’s own motion – Scope (Council Regulation
            No 207/2009, Art. 76(1)) (see para. 49)
      Re:
      
         
               ACTIONS brought, in Case T-310/09, against the decision of the Grand Board of Appeal of OHIM of 28 April 2009 (Case R 323/2008‑G)
                  concerning an application for registration of the word sign BEHAVIOURAL INDEXING as a Community trade mark and, in Case T-383/09,
                  against the decision of the First Board of Appeal of OHIM of 11 June 2009 (Case R 138/2009‑1) concerning an application for
                  registration of the word sign BEHAVIOURAL INDEX as a Community trade mark.
               
            Information relating to the case 
      
               Applicant for the Community trade mark: 
            
            
               Fuller & Thaler Asset Management, Inc.
            
         
               Community trade mark sought: 
            
            
               Word marks BEHAVIOURAL INDEXING and BEHAVIOURAL INDEX for goods and services in classes 9 and 36 – Applications Nos 5785456
                  and 5785092
               
            
         
               Decision of the examiner: 
            
            
               Registrations refused
            
         
               Decision of the Board of Appeal: 
            
            
               Appeals dismissed 
            
         
      Operative part 
      The Court:
      
         
                  1.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Orders that Cases T‑310/09 and T‑383/09 be joined for the purposes of the present judgment;
               
            
         
                  2.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Dismisses the applications;
               
            
         
                  3.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Orders Fuller & Thaler Asset Management, Inc., in Cases T‑310/09 and T‑383/09, to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred
                     by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM).