Bet365 scores court victory in long-running trademark battle

Bet365 has been partially backed by a European court over a trademark infringement case dating back a decade.

The European Union General Court (EGC), in a decision handed down on Thursday, annulled the part of a ruling which stated that the mark ‘Bet 365’ was descriptive and had not acquired distinctive character in class 41, covering betting services. 

Bet365 initially filed an application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for ‘Bet 365’ in classes 9, 28, 35, 38, 41 and 42 for its online betting service in 2007.

Despite already being a major operator in the UK, the EUIPO examiner informed Bet365 that he intended to reject the application. He claimed that the mark applied for was descriptive of the goods and services concerned, with ‘Bet’ referring to betting and the element ‘365’ referring to the number of days in a year.

The examiner changed his mind the following year, but opposition to the application by German citizen Robert Hansen, who filed an application for registration of the word mark b365 in 2013, has led to a number of EUIPO rulings and appeals in the intervening years.

Most recently, in 2016, the Fifth Board of Appeal at the EUIPO ruled that the mark was descriptive and “intrinsically not distinctive”. The ruling in favour of Hansen added that the mark had not acquired distinctiveness in all European countries.

This led to an appeal by Bet365 to the EGC, which annulled the 2016 decision insofar as it concerns the services in class 41 (betting and gambling) but dismissed the remainder of the action from Bet365.

The General Court said the Fifth Board of Appeal had not sufficiently substantiated its decision concerning the gambling and betting services in class 41.

“Consequently, with regard to those services, the single plea in law seeking annulment is well founded and there is no need to examine the last arguments put forward by the applicant concerning the lack of opinion polls or evidence from a chamber of commerce in respect of which it was criticised by the Board of Appeal.”

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