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Many businesses choose a word from another language for their brand because it sounds distinctive or connected to a particular place or product. In general, you can register a foreign word as a trade mark. But there are some exceptions. If a word describes the goods or services and people in the UK would understand it, the UKIPO is likely to refuse it, just as it would refuse the English word.
In this article, we look at who must understand the word, which words are likely to be refused and why services can be treated differently from goods.
The key test: who will understand it?
A word in another language is not automatically safe. If the same word in English would be refused as descriptive, the UKIPO will look at whether the foreign word would be understood in the UK. Following a European court ruling, it will only object where UK traders or ordinary consumers are likely to recognise what the word means.
The “trade” means the people in the UK who buy and sell the goods or services and often understand more than the average shopper. A pharmacist may recognise a Latin name which most consumers would not, and a wine trader is likely to know French wine terms better than the average buyer. So, a word can be refused because the trade would understand it, even if most shoppers would not.
Welsh and Gaelic are treated in the same way as English.
Words that people are likely to understand
The languages people in the UK are most likely to understand are French, Spanish, Italian and German. Most consumers are not fluent, but many will recognise common words, especially the French ones. For instance, “biscuit pour chien” is likely to be understood as dog biscuits and “lait hydratant” as a moisturising milk, because people are used to seeing French on cosmetics.
Familiar names for products and places can also be a problem. Wine drinkers are likely to know that “Bourgogne” means Burgundy and that “vin rouge” means red wine, and olive oil buyers are likely to know that “Toscano” means Tuscan. These words may not be registered for those goods.
Words that look like the English version are most at risk. For instance, the Italian word “caffe” is likely to be refused for coffee because the average coffee drinker would see it as meaning coffee.
Goods vs services
Services are treated more flexibly than goods. Goods move between countries, so foreign words are more likely to be used to describe imported products.
For example, “Prêt à manger”, meaning Ready to eat in French, is unlikely to be seen by the trade as simply descriptive of a catering service in the UK, even if people know what the words mean. “prêt-à-porter” (ready to wear), by contrast, would not be registrable for clothing because it is already a recognised term in the trade. The exceptions are services such as travel, transport and language services.
Specific communities and everyday terms
Sometimes people buying a product are far more likely than the average UK consumer to understand a language. The Arabic word for a yashmak would not be registrable for yashmaks because it is the normal way for traders to advertise food, drink and clothing.
Some foreign words have also become the ordinary name for a product. “auto” is not registered for cars and related goods, and “panini” is not registrable for sandwiches.
Key takeaways and advice
A foreign word is not automatically safe or automatically refused. The key question is whether UK traders or customers would understand it as a description.
Think about who your customers are. The word that matters is the one your trade and buyers know.
Be careful with words that look like English. The closer they are, the more likely they will be understood.
The goods or services matter. A phrase may work for catering but not for clothing, as with the Pret a Manger and Pret a Porter.
Avoid words that have become the everyday name. If traders and customers already use it as the normal word, it is unlikely to be registered.
Take advice before you file. Check what the word means, and to which language communities, and have your goods and services reviewed.
