EU court grills Weber-Stephen in TM appeal
The EU General Court has upheld the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) refusal to register the mark ‘iGrill’ in relation to a connected cookery product today.
In February 2015, iDevices, a creator of connected home products, applied to register the word mark ‘iGrill’. The iGrill product line is made up of mobile-compatible Bluetooth thermometers for use in food grills.
The mark sought to cover class 9 for computer software and electronic food thermometers, for use in connection with mobile devices for cooking activities.
In January 2016, the application was refused on the grounds that it was descriptive. iDevices appealed against the decision to the EUIPO but, in November 2016, the Second Board of Appeal upheld the examiner’s refusal.
The board said ‘iGrill’ was a neologism (a newly-coined word) composed of the element ‘i’ and the element ‘grill’. It ruled that the first letter ‘i’ is understood as referring to something interactive, or related to IT, and the word ‘grill’ referred to a cooking device.
The combination of the two elements was found to be a descriptive term, referring to an interactive grill or a grill employing information technology.
iDevices’ iGrill range was acquired by Weber-Stephen Products, a manufacturer of outdoor grills and accessories, in February 2016. As the new proprietor of the applied-for mark, Weber-Stephen appealed to the EU General Court.
Weber-Stephen argued that the ‘i’ element does not have any independent meaning and the public will perceive the mark as a “neologism composed of a single word”.
It further claimed that the appeal board had departed from the decision-making procedure of the EUIPO when declaring that the ‘iGrill’ mark was descriptive.
The General Court disagreed, stating that it was a “well-known fact” that the letter ‘i’ can mean “intelligent” or could refer to ‘information technology’. It also noted that ‘grill’ is a common English word.
“It must be concluded that the mark applied for will be seen as the mere juxtaposition of the two elements ‘i’ and ‘grill’ of which it is composed and not a neologism consisting of a single word which has no obvious meaning,” said the court..
Weber-Stephen argued that there was no link between what the letter ‘i’ and the word ‘grill’ refer to and the products in the iGrill range, as grills do not have an IT interface.
In response, the court referred to the description of the goods which stated that the products covered by the mark are intended to be used with mobile devices.
“Consequently, it must be held that the goods at issue have the characteristic of making grills intelligent by enabling them to make use of information technology in order to assist their users,” said the court.
The court upheld the decision of the EUIPO and found that it did not depart from its decision-making process in its deliberations of the ‘iGrill’ mark. Weber-Stephen was ordered to pay costs.
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