Jaguar’s 3D car body CTM application rejected by EU court

Jaguar Land Rover’s Community trademark (CTM) application for a 3D car shape covering automobiles has been rejected by the EU General Court.

Yesterday, November 25, the court ruled that the application lacked a “distinctive character” and was therefore not eligible for protection.

Last year, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market’s Second Board of Appeal rejected the CTM application covering cars, radio toy-controlled cars, and air and water vehicles.

The CTM application consisted of six line drawings outlining the 3D shape of a land rover.

Despite upholding the board’s decision to reject the application for automobiles, the court annulled its decision to reject th e CTM covering air and water vehicles.

The court said: “It should be observed that the applicant, in so doing, in no way states that the mark applied for departs significantly from the norm or customs of the sector concerned as opposed to constituting merely a ‘variant’ of a common shape of a car.

“Even if the applicant’s statements regarding the quality and level of detail of the six graphic representations were proved, the fact remains that a high quality and extremely detailed drawing may well contain merely a variation of the typical shape of a car,” the court concluded.