Dipl. Biotechnol. Vanessa Bockhorni
The Swedish company „Absolut Company AB“, which distributes alcohols, in particular vodka, under its trademark “Absolut Vodka”, has sued the radio station “Absolut Radio” based in Regensburg, Germany. The well-known company from Sweden is of the opinion that the name of the radio station would easily lead to confusion among consumers and that advantage is taken of the good reputation of the Swedish vodka trademark.
The word “absolut” belongs to the common parlance of the German language and means “completely, totally” as an adverb or “sovereign” or “outright” as an adjective. It is therefore used “absolutely” frequently in everyday life which is why the question comes up whether the term contains a distinctive character at all.
Commonly used words of the German language lack distinctiveness when they are only understood in their original meaning as such and therefore not as a means of distinctiveness (as e.g. Fußball WM2006*). Whether this is also the case with the EU wordmark ABSOLUT (no. 1521681) of the Swedish company is the big question and in our opinion, it does not lack distinctiveness considering the fact that the wordmark ABSOLUT has a high recognition within the EU due to its considerable use for the goods vodka and therefore, a distinctiveness obtained by the extensive use of the EU mark cannot be denied.
This case was treated before the District Court based in Hamburg on June 11, however, a verdict has unfortunately not yet been published. We will report on the controversial proceeding as soon as a verdict is available.
* Fußball WM 2006, GRUR 2006, 850 (no. 19, 45)
Author: Dipl. Biotechnol. Vanessa Bockhorni (Patent Attorney), Update 2/2013
Patent Attorneys and Lawyers Bockhorni & Kollegen
Munich/ Germany
www.patguard.de
