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What cannot be the object of a trademark?
The law establishes a series of limitations:
- Signs that are not distinctive enough to be distinguishable, for example, a dot or a line without another characterising element, as it would be hard for these to be perceived as a "trademark" by the consumer.
- Generic and specific signs, for example chocolate to distinguish "chocolate", those that are composed exclusively of signs that in trade or in normal language have become a required or habitual designation of a certain product or service, for example, "spring rolls" to distinguish food products.
- Descriptive signs: those which are composed exclusively of signs or indications that serve within the retail trade to designate the species, quality, destination, value, geographical origin, production season of a product or the provision of a service or other features of the products or of the service, for example, "select edition" or "May strawberries".
- Misleading signs, for example, “Oleoliva” to distinguish other types of oil and edible fats.
- Unlawful signs or signs that contravene public order, for example, any xenophobic or sexist trademark.
- Forms that are imposed for technical reasons or by the nature of the product or that affect their intrinsic value, for example, the picture of a satellite dish to distinguish satellite dishes or that of a car windscreen wiper for windscreen wipers, or the picture of a pencil with no decorative or distinguishing features.
- Certain legally protected signs such as flags and coats of arms belonging to states, autonomous regions, etc.
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