The Supreme Administrative Court in its judgment of 14 December 2001, case file II SA 3446/01 ruled that the English word “heritage” is not a generic term for the services it was registered for, nor does it inform about its properties, quality or usefulness. Therefore “heritage” word can be used as a trade mark.

A quick note. The judgments of the Court of Justice of the EC in case C-3/03 P, Matratzen Concord GmbH vs. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs), [2004] E.C.R. I-3657 and C-421/04, Matratzen Concord AG vs. Hukla Germany SA, [2006] E.C.R. I-2303, have been issued couple of years later.

Categories: Art. 29 TMA | Art. 7(1) TMA | Art. 8(1) TMA | Art. 8(2) TMA | company name or firm | Directive 89/104/EEC | distinctive character | EU law | personal rights or interests | Polish Supreme Administrative Court | Regulation 40/94 | trade mark invalidation | trademark law.