argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: domain name - perception of the brand - distinctive characters

On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision concluding the long dispute between the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") and the company Booking.com, which intended to register this domain name as a trademark in the USA. The decision reinforces the principle according to which, rather than formal criteria, the assessment of the distinctive character and generic nature of a trademark must be anchored to the perception that consumers have of it. The legislation on trademarks, in the United States as in Europe, is based on the assumption that a sign, in order to be registered, must be capable of achieving the purpose of indicating the origin of the product, differentiating it from that of competing companies, as for the famous site "Booking.com" composed of two elements which, in themselves, have no distinctive characters.