Novartis Can’t Register ‘Smart’ Contact Lens Trademark in EU

Novartis AG can’t register SmartSurface as a European Union trademark for contact lenses because it merely describes sophisticated surfaces, an EU court said.

The Swiss healthcare company “failed to establish any error” by the EU Intellectual Property Office, which rejected the mark for being “devoid of distinctiveness,” the EU General Court ruled March 12. Novartis had registered SmartSurface as a U.S. trademark last year.

The decision highlights the fact that different nations’ trademark offices may come to opposite conclusions on the same trademark, even if they generally evaluate them using similar concepts.

Novartis applied to register SmartSurface in the U.S. ...