The Plaintiff filed the trademark at issue “iPhone trade dress Icon Screen (color)” on July 23, 1999, designating on use of products with multifunctional portable digital electronic equipments in I.C. 09, namely the appearance and APPs shown on the screen of iPhone mobile phone.
The judge of IP Court is of the opinion that the trademark at issue merely consisting of the appearance and APP shown on the screen of a mobile phone is not distinctive enough to make relevant consumers recognize it as a sign identifying the source of the goods because of the following reasons:
- Besides the Plaintiff, many of other manufacturers also adopt similar design, i.e. with big screen, with obtuse angles, thin body, brief and fewer buttons, when producing the smart phones with their own brands.
- Every manufacturer allows users to place or arrange the icons/APP shown on screen of their own smart phones by preference. Thus, even smart phones with the same pattern and operating system may have different arrangement of icons/APP on screen due to different users.
- Consequently, every manufacturer usually places their own brand/logo on the obverse side of a smart phone in order to distinguish their products from others, except the Plaintiff, who puts its brand on the back of the smart phone. In case the brands/logos are removed from the smart phones, it would be difficult for consumers to distinguish one from another.
- The Plaintiff didn’t file the trademark at issue early but late until it became a trend to produce smart phones in similar design.
- The trademark applications filed by the Plaintiff in the countries, such as China, Korea, Finland and Taiwan, etc., the main places of production of smart phones nowadays, haven’t been approved yet.
Accordingly, the distinctiveness of the appearance and icon screen of a mobile phone is too low to make relevant consumers recognize it as a sign identifying the source of the goods, so the appearance and icon screen of a mobile phone cannot be registered as a trademark in Taiwan.
