On 16 March 2022, an application was filed for the European Union Trade Mark MUE 018672791 consisting of a figurative sign showing the slogan RUSSIAN WARSHIP, GO F**K YOURSELF in English and Russian, for the goods and services in classes 9, 14, 16, 18, 25, 28 and 41. The registration of the applied trade mark was refused in itsentirety on the grounds of article 7 (1) (f) EUTMR regarding the conflict with publicorder.

The applicant appealed against the mentioned decision.The Board held that whether ornot the Article concerning public order was applicable, the trademark lacked distinctivecharacter. The appeal was dismissed on the grounds of article 7 (1) (b) EUTMR bywhich the trade mark was devoid of distinctive character. Therefore, the applicantsubmitted an appeal in the General Court aiming the cancellation of the contesteddecision.

Analysis and conclusions of the General Court

In order to solve  the following controversy, the Court acknowledges that the trade markapplied for registration consists of a political slang regarding the Ukrainian conflict, themeaning of which is easily understood by the general public in the European Unionwith knowledge of Russian or English. To that end, the phrase represented in the trademark must be regarded as a political slogan because it has been widely and immediatelyused, after being uttered since the first time, for a particular political purpose.

For this reason, as the phrase of the trade mark has a strong political message, consumers will not perceive the mark as an indicator of the commercial origin of thegoods and services marketed. Instead, as the contested trade mark has been intensivelyused  in a non-commercial context, the general public would associate it with thisparticular historical context which is well known to the average EU consumer.

The General Court considers that a trade mark has a distinctive character when it allowsthe consumers to identify the origin of the goods and services for which the registrationis applied for. However, since the controversial sign is one of the symbols of Ukraine’sstruggle against the Russian occupation, the general will only perceive the politicalmessage behind it, and will not recall the applied Trade Mark as a distinctive element ofa commercial entity but merely as a political slogan.

Moreover, the General Court indirectly refers to the case-law on commercial slogans, from which can be extracted the following conclusion. The general public pays no attention to signs that don’t indicate the origin or the intended purpose of what isintended to be purchased. For that reason, in this case, consumers would only payattention to the political background of the message.

Therefore, the applied Trade mark cannot be registered in the requested classes owing tothe ground for refusal under Article 7(1)(f) EUTMR and therefore the action isdismissed.

Judgment of the Third Chamber of the General Court of the European Union of 13 November 2024 in case T-82/24.