An interesting landmark case today…

On 16 October 2009, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) applied to register the designation ‘IP TRANSLATOR’ as a UK trade mark. To identify the services covered by that registration the CIPA used the heading of Class 41 of the Nice Classification which includes translation but is called ‘Education; providing of training; entertainment; sporting and cultural activities’.

The UK Intellectual Property Office refused the application, stating that the class description included ‘translation services’. The proposed trade mark would thus have lacked distinctive character and been descriptive in nature, too similar to the class description itself.

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