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I am co-founder of a company with which we want to apply for a trademark of our name in BeNeLux. We were told that this would be quite dangerous for us and would be risky as our company name also describes the activity of our company. Such trademark applications would be denied by the European Union.

I can give you an example. If a company is called "computerrepair" and their service is about repairing computers, a trademark request of the name "computerrepair" would be denied as the company name which describes the company's activity.

My question is if this is true and how much value is placed on this?

(I've searched a bit through the internet but haven't found an exact answer).

Trish
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Gilles Heinesch
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1 Answers1

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Yes, that's true

Common words are not trademarkable, as is a descriptive phrase, because a trademark needs to be distinctive. As the Netherland Trademark Office tells you, your mark can't fit in any of these categories:

  • literal - Your tradename or logo must not literal describe or depict your goods or services.
  • promotion - The trademark must amount to more than a value judgment alone.
  • misleading

They even have an FAQ about that!

The trademark is descriptive - which is the most common reason. A trademark is descriptive when it describes the properties of the product or service or promotes these. For example: the words 'super fast bike' for the product category 'bicycles'.

Please note: the wording here is not always in common usage. The trademark 'medi' is not listed in the dictionary as a common abbreviation for 'medical'. All the same, it is a common designation that consumers will understand right away in the discriptive sense. So, this type of trademark could also be descriptive and hence declined.

Computerrepair is a literal description of what the business does, just like Biomild on a mild biological yogurt just describes it.

Trish
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