U.S. Medical Robotics Company’s EU Trademark Bid Rejected (1)

A U.S. surgical robotics company can’t register “See More. Reach More. Treat More.” as an EU trademark because it lacks distinctiveness, a European Union court ruled.

The General Court of the EU said the string of words couldn’t function as a trademark because consumers would immediately understand the slogan’s meaning and likely fail to connect the slogan to a source of products. It rejected Medrobotics Corp.'s claims that the unusual sentence structure would prevent the public from perceiving the mark literally.

The April 3 ruling shows that trademark applicants must show a promotional trademark goes beyond simply lauding a product’s ...