Judgment of the General Court of 12 March 2014 – American Express Marketing & Development v OHIM (IP ZONE)

(Joined Cases T-102/11 and T-369/12 to T-371/12) ¹

(Community trade mark – Applications for Community word marks IP ZONE, EUROPE IP ZONE, IP ZONE EUROPE and EUROPEAN IP ZONE – Absolute ground for refusal – Descriptive character – Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009)

Language of the cases: English

Parties

Applicant: American Express Marketing & Development Corp. (New York, New York, United States) (represented by: V. Spitz, A. Gaul, T. Golda and S. Kirschstein-Freund, lawyers)

Defendant: Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (represented by: J. Crespo Carrillo and P. Bullock, acting as Agents)

Re:

Actions brought against the decisions of the Second Board of Appeal of OHIM of 1 December 2010 (Case R 1125/2010-2) and 12 June 2012 (Cases R 1451/2011-2, R 1452/2011-2 and R 1453/2011-2) concerning applications for registration of the sign IP ZONE and of the signs EUROPE IP ZONE, IP ZONE EUROPE and EUROPEAN IP ZONE, respectively, as Community trade marks.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the actions;

Orders American Express Marketing & Development Corp. to pay the costs.

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¹     OJ C 130, 30.4.2011.