CP14 Trade Marks contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality

CP14: Trade Marks contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality

The concepts of ‘public policy’ and ‘accepted principles of morality’ appear in Article 4(1)(f) of the ‘Trade Mark Directive (EU) 2015/2436’(TMD), which provides an absolute ground for refusal or invalidity for trade marks that are contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality. However, the wording of this article is quite broad and it does not contain a definition of what should be understood as ‘public policy’ or ‘accepted principles of morality’, nor does it clarify the relationship between the two concepts.

Whilst EU case-law had provided some guidance on the matter, there was still uncertainty on decisive aspects of the assessment of the provision, such as the relationship and differences between the two concepts, whether and in which cases they may overlap, and the criteria that should be taken into consideration in the assessment. Consequently, there was no common understanding of Article 4(1)(f) TMD among the Member State Intellectual Property Offices (MS IPOs), and given the lack of clarity, the assessment remained susceptible to largely subjective decision-making across the EU.

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