The European Court of First Instance (CFI) held that even though the term ‘pharma’ as such does not exist in the English language, it will be understood by the English-speaking public as referring to pharmaceuticals. Moreover, the juxtaposition of the terms ‘pharma’ and ‘research’ is not unusual, since it follows the rules of English grammar. The CFI thus concluded that the impression created by the PHARMARESEARCH mark was not sufficiently removed from that created by the juxtaposition of its components. The presence of a capital ‘R’ in the middle of the mark was deemed insufficient to render the mark distinctive.
The CTM for PHARMARESEARCH covered “electric and electronic apparatus, and instruments for entering, managing, recording, testing, monitoring and transmitting products and machines data and external data on presses (machines).”
The applicant tried to raise the allowance of registration to the mark RESEARCHPHARM in 2008. But the Court considered that the goods and services covered by that mark (“printed matter and organization of scientific expositions”) were different from those covered by CTM application so this other registration could not influence on the proceeding at hands.
