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EU Court Blocks Brazilian Company From Trademarking Sound Of a Ringing Phone (arstechnica.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the nope-can't-do-that dept.

The standard ringing from an alarm clock or a telephone is too boring and banal to be registered as a trademark within the EU, a top court has ruled. The judgment was handed down by the EU General Court (EGC), blocking a Brazilian company that had tried to claim ownership of the sound, Ars Technica reports. From its story: In 2014, the Brazilian mass media company Grupo Globo applied to register the globally familiar "ring-ring" sound "for the dissemination of information electronically, orally, or by means of television" -- guarding its use on all electronic devices and in media representations. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) at the time refused to register the jingle on the grounds that it had "no distinctive character," and that it was "a banal and commonplace ringtone which would generally go unnoticed and would not be remembered by the consumer." Globo -- the biggest media company in Latin America -- appealed EUIPO's decision at the EU General Court, which has today ruled that the sound is indeed too boring to register.

2 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Not a ringing phone sound by Trikoloko · · Score: 5, Informative

    Brazilian here. This is what they tried to trademark (The last sound in the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    In Brazil, This is known as the "plim-plim". They have been using the sound for many (30+) years. I don't see how this can be compared to the sound of a ringing phone.

    --
    My cellphone ringtone is a ring tone.
  2. Re: Reading too much /. by parkinglot777 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Their mistake was trying to trademark it in the EU. They should have done it here in the states; you can trademark just about anything here. Hell, there's a company that successfully claims ownership of the word "monster", a very common word that they claim trademark infringement on everything and anything from minigolf to movies.

    Then you have no idea of differences between trademark, copyright, and patents... You can't trademark sound or lyric because they belong to copyright category. Also, protections are different too. If you really want to understand what they are, I suggested you to visit USPTO Trademark page, so that you wouldn't spread your misunderstanding/misinformation to others.

    PS: yes, you can trademark the word "monster" but it has to be tied to certain conditions.