Great Success! We are excited to announce that our firm was successful in obtaining a significant ruling in a trademark case (T-497/24 – LOOP) regarding the binding effect of judgements of the General Court in Luxembourg for the EUIPO and Board of Appeal and regarding absolute grounds for refusal:

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The ruling, issued on September 10, 2025, deals with the binding effect (legal force) of judgements of the General Court (GC). The GC made it clear that the EUIPO is bound to the essential findings of the GC in case that the Board of Appeal’s decision is annulled and referred back to the EUIPO. In the subject case, it was held that the Board of Appeal misinterpreted the legal force of the previous annulment judgement and thus infringed Article 72(6) EUTMR by ruling that the sign “LOOP” was descriptive within the meaning of Article 7(1)(c) EUTMR for the goods in question in Class 9.

The GC also stated that in cases where the EUIPO does not agree with the findings of the GC, it may file an action before the Court of Justice of the EU but is not allowed to disrespect the findings of the Court.

Furthermore, the GC decided that the word mark “LOOP” is registrable for telecommunications-related goods and services, i.a. in classes 9, 38 and 42.

The EUIPO (first Examiner as well as the Board of Appeal) was of the opinion that the sign “LOOP” is a descriptive term and lacks distinctiveness. The General Court (GC) has finally clarified that the term “LOOP” is neither descriptive nor lacking distinctiveness for the relevant goods and services. The GC found that there are at least two mental steps required to identify any specific/intrinsic meaning (and thus a descriptive character) and that “LOOP” is a vague and equivocal term.

In our view, this decision qualifies as a landmark decision. Besides its clarifications regarding the binding effect/legal force of judgements, it clearly consolidates the case law about absolute grounds for refusal as outlined in the GC’s previous decisions such as OFF-WHITE (T-133/19), WAVE (T-869/19) and SCOPE (T-90/15).

Markus Müller
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