Slogan registration steps up a gear

Bill Ladas and Nina O’Sullivan of SJ Berwin LLP debate the viability of registering slogans in the light of a recent Court of Justice decision regarding Audi

It is often said that, whilst slogans are not excluded from trademark protection, in practice, it is more difficult to register one as a trademark than it is for any other word-mark combination. However, while the reported cases in the UK and in relation to Community trademarks (CTMs) do tend to suggest that slogans face more obstacles in attaining registration, those cases have largely related to quite obviously laudatory or descriptive slogans. For example, recent slogans rejected by the General Court being: ‘thinking ahead’ for education services, ‘built to resist’ for paper goods and clothing and ‘tame it’ for cosmetics and hair lotions.