Trademark ABSOLUT
by Dr. Maximilian Kinkeldey, Partner of Grünecker, Kinkeldey, Stockmair & Schwanhäusser

In a corresponding decision regarding the application of the trademark ABSOLUT for "vodka", the Federal German Supreme Court decided that a rejection on the basis of Section 8, Sub-section 2, No. 1 of the German Trademark Act is only justified if it can be shown by the German Patent and Trademark Office that a close descriptive relation exists between the word ABSOLUT and the claimed goods or that the term ABSOLUT is such a common German word used in everyday language that the consumer circles concerned do understand the word merely in that respect and - when confronted with the term ABSOLUT - do not possibly think of it as an indication regarding the source of the products. Only under these circumstances can the term ABSOLUT be denied protection due to its total lack of inherent distinctiveness (Bundesgerichtshof, Decision of June 24, 1999 - I ZB 45/96).