The Finnish Trade Mark Office decided in 28 April 2009 that the international registration DOGGY (registration number 951129) applied for by Lantmännen Doggy AB in class 31 for “animal foodstuffs” would not cover Finland. The reasoning behind this was that the trade mark lacked distinctiveness as it described the purpose of use for the goods it covered. The trade mark consisted of the word DOGG,Y which means “dog” -- a spoken word pet name for a dog. The Office stated that the accepted registrations in other countries that the applicant provided did not disclose whether the marks were accepted to the register based on proof of use. Additionally, the Office stated that the previous registration referred to by the applicant -- HAMPURILAINEN (‘hamburger’ in Finnish) was is not directly comparable to this registration as the descriptiveness of the signs was on a completely different level. The Office reasoned that the registration did not distinguish the goods of the applicant from those of another as far as animal foods were concerned.

The Board of Appeal of the Finnish Trade Mark Office dismissed the appeal in this case and affirmed the decision of the Trade Mark Office, including its reasons.

The case proceeded to the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland, which dismissed the appeal in 9 July 2013 and upheld the decision of the Trade Mark Office. It stated that the registrations which the applicant had presented as being comparable with the applied mark or the fact that the trade mark DOGGY was considered distinctive in other countries did not prove that the mark would be a distinctive trade mark in Finland. Further, the fact that the applicant presented evidence proving that DOGGY products were broadly marketed in Finland at least from year 2003 and that there had been extensive sales of the product in stores belonging to different chain of stores did not produce an outcome that the trade mark would have been used for so long and extensively that it would have become so distinctive that the international registration for the trade mark DOGGY would cover Finland as well. Based on the above, the Court decided that there were no grounds for revising the decision of the Trade Mark Office.      

It is interesting to note that the applicant has this summer, on 15 July 2014, obtained a registration for the figurative trade mark depicted here for animal foodstuffs and dog treats in class 31.

This item has been kindly prepared for Class 46 by Tiina Komppa (Roschier, Finland)