Traduction de «propos dénués de sens » (Français → Anglais) :

It simply makes no sense, in terms of guaranteeing a level playing filed, to harmonise the one but not the other.

Secondly, the Court of First Instance was correct in holding, in paragraph 56 of the judgment under appeal, that registrations already made in Member States are only factors which may merely be taken into consideration, without being given decisive weight, for the purposes of registering a Community trade mark (see, to that effect, with regard to registration of national trade marks in various Member States by application of Directive 89/104, Henkel, paragraphs 62 and 63).

With regard, in particular, to three-dimensional trade marks consisting of the packaging of goods, such as liquids, which are packaged in trade for reasons linked to the very nature of the product, the Court has held that they must enable average consumers of the goods in question, who are reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, to distinguish the product concerned from those of other undertakings without conducting an analytical or comparative examination and without paying particular attention (see, to that effect, with regard to Article 3(1)(b) of First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to app ...[+++]roximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (OJ 1989 L 40, p. 1), which provision is identical to Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation No 40/94, Case C‑218/01 Henkel [2004] ECR I‑1725, paragraph 53).

That means the presumed expectations of an average consumer who is reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect (see, to that effect, in relation to Article 3(1)(b) of First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (OJ 1989 L 40, p. 1), which is identical to Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation No 40/94, Case C-218/01 Henkel [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 50 and the case-law cited there; see also Joined Cases C-456/01 P and C-457/01 P Henkel v OHIM [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 35 and the case-law cited there).

Only a trade mark which departs significantly from the norm or customs of the sector and thereby fulfils its essential function of indicating origin, is not devoid of any distinctive character for the purposes of that provision (see, in relation to the identical provision in Article 3(1)(b) of First Directive 89/104, Henkel, paragraph 49).

For a trade mark to possess distinctive character for the purposes of Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation No 40/94, it must serve to identify the product in respect of which registration is applied for as originating from a particular undertaking, and thus to distinguish that product from those of other undertakings (see, in relation to Article 3(1)(b) of First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (OJ 1989 L 40, p. 1), a provision which is identical to Article 7(1)(b), Joined Cases C-53/01 to C‑55/01 Linde and Others [2003] ECR I-3161, paragraph 40).