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Law Cases
Intellectual Property Law Cases
Trademarks 1 Cases

Dyson v Registrar of Trade Marks [2007] Case C-321/03

Country:
United Kingdom
By Oxbridge Law Team
Held
Justifications

  • Dyson had made and sold bagless vaccum cleaners since 1993.

  • Sought to register trademark of: “a transparent bin or collection chamber forming part of the external surface of a vacuum cleaner as shown in the representation” (image attached to application).

  • High Court took view that illustrations were entirely descriptive of product. Then made a preliminary reference to ECJ on issue of distinctiveness; however ECJ ignored this question, and instead chose to answer question of whether subject matter of application was in fact capable of registration at all.

Held

  • Subject matter of case is not a particular type of transparent bin or collection chamber.

    • Rather it is all the conceivable shapes of such a bin or collection chamber.

  • Thus the sign sought to be registered is a mere property of product concerned

  • Hence does not constitute a ‘sign’ for purposes of Article 2.

Justifications

  • Were someone to be given trademark relating to non-specific subject matter, would gain an unfair competitive advantage.

    • I.e. as they would be able to prevent competitors designing vacuum cleaners with any sort of transparent collection bin on its external surface, regardless of its shape.

    • This would be contrary to purpose of Article 2.

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