Color in the name
becomes obstacle
to protection.
Color in the name
becomes obstacle
to protection.
from
Can a bicycle manufacturer protect its company name “ROSE” as an EU trademark for clothing, shoes and caps – even though the word simply means the color pink in German and French? What happens when a color is so closely associated with a certain product category that competitors need it to describe their goods? And where is the boundary between a protectable brand name and a color indication that must be kept free?
What did Rose Bikes want to achieve?
Rose Bikes GmbH, a well-known company in the bicycle industry, attempted to register its company keyword “ROSE” as an EU trademark for clothing, footwear and headgear. The company applied for the mark at the EUIPO in February 2024. However, both the responsible examiner and the Second Board of Appeal of the EUIPO rejected the application. The word was descriptive and lacked distinctive character. Rose Bikes appealed to the European Court of Justice.
Why was “ROSE” judged to be descriptive?
In English and French, the word “rose” means, among other things, the color pink. This meaning is familiar to a broad public throughout the EU. Under trademark law, a term is not eligible for protection if it describes a characteristic of the goods in question that is relevant to the purchase and that competitors are free to use to describe the goods.
The court confirmed with Decision of 22.04.2026 – Ref. T-56/25 that a color can in principle be regarded as such a characteristic, provided that it is not merely accidentally or arbitrarily associated with the goods, but is inherent in them. The individual case is decisive here: which color is involved, which goods and how direct is the connection?
The color pink cannot be regarded as an irrelevant or arbitrary characteristic for these goods within the meaning of the case-law.
The baby clothes were decisive
The court recognized that clothing is generally available in all conceivable colors and that the color pink is therefore only one of many options in the entire class of goods. For the category “clothing, footwear, headgear” alone, the refusal would therefore not have been justified without further ado.
However, the situation is different for baby clothing: Here, it is generally known that infant clothing is typically offered in the colors pink or light blue. Pink is therefore closely linked to this specific sub-category and is not merely a coincidental but an inherent characteristic. The same applies to youth clothing, for which the color pink also has a special significance.
Since Rose Bikes had not limited the application to certain sub-groups of goods, the category applied for inevitably also included baby goods. The descriptiveness of the sign was therefore to be affirmed for the entire class.
What does this mean for companies with a color meaning in their name?
The ruling shows that names that also designate colors can encounter particular difficulties in trademark law if the color in question is typical for certain goods or their sub-groups. It is sufficient that the descriptiveness exists only for a part of the goods applied for. As long as the applicant does not make a corresponding restriction, the blocking effect applies to the entire category.
Companies should therefore check whether their sign designates a color or another descriptive characteristic of goods in one of the official languages of the EU before applying for a trademark. If your company name also has a color meaning, a precise restriction of the list of goods to subgroups for which this color is not typical can lead to a successful trademark application.
Conclusion
This case shows how important a well thought-out trademark strategy is for a successful trademark application.
Rose Bikes ultimately failed because of the close association of pink with baby clothing. This made the color an inherent feature of the product. If baby clothes had been left out, the case might have turned out differently. The ruling illustrates how carefully trademark applications must be examined for potential double meanings, such as those that can occur in color meanings in European languages.
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