Judgment of the General Court of 3 February 2011 - Gühring v OHIM (Combination of the colours broom yellow and silver grey and combination of the colours yellow ochre and silver grey)

(Case T-299/09 and T-300/09) ¹

(Community trade mark - Application for a Community trade mark consisting of a combination of the colours broom yellow and silver grey - Application for a Community trade mark consisting of a combination of the colours yellow ochre and silver grey - Absolute ground for refusal - Lack of distinctive character - Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 - Examination of the facts of the Court's own motion - Article 76(1) of Regulation No 207/2009 - Obligation to state reasons - Article 75 of Regulation No 207/2009)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicant: Gühring OHG (Albstadt, Germany) (represented by: A. von Mühlendahl and H. Hartwig, lawyers)

Defendant: Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (represented initially by G. Schneider and subsequently by G. Schneider and B. Schmidt, acting as Agents)

Re:

Two actions brought against the decisions of the First Board of Appeal of OHIM of 30 April 2009 (Cases R 1330/2008-1 and R 1329/2008-1) concerning applications for registration of the combination of the colours broom yellow and silver grey and the combination of the colours yellow ochre and silver grey as Community trade marks.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.    Orders that Cases T-299/09 to T-300/09 be joined for the purposes of the judgment.

2.    Dismisses the actions.

3.    Orders Gühring OHG to pay the costs.

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¹ - OJ C 256, 24.10.2009.