Judgment of the General Court of 11 December 2013 – Smartbook v OHIM (SMARTBOOK)

(Case T-123/12) ¹

(Community trade mark – Application for Community word mark SMARTBOOK – Absolute ground for refusal – Lack of distinctiveness – Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicant: Smartbook AG (Offenburg, Germany) (represented by: C. Milbradt, A. Schwarz and F. Reiling, lawyers)

Defendant: Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (represented by: D. Walicka, acting as Agent)

Intervener in support of the defendant: Qualcomm, Inc. (Dover, Delaware, United States) (represented by: A. Renck, A. Leister and V. von Bomhard, lawyers)

Re:

Action brought against the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of OHIM of 15 December 2011 (Case R 799/2011-2), concerning an application for registration of the word sign SMARTBOOK as a Community trade mark.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.    Dismisses the action;

2.    Orders Smartbook AG to pay the costs.

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¹     OJ C 157, 2.6.2012.