상표 “Transcendental Meditation”의 식별력에 대한 이스라엘 특허청 결정에 대한 평석

Israel Trademark Application No. 249554 for “Transcendental Meditation” in class 41

The Maharishi Vedic University Ltd. submitted Israel TM Application No. 249554 for ת י לט נ דנ ס נ ר ט ה י צ ט י ד מ which is Transcendental Meditation transliterated into Hebrew. The mark was submitted on 21 September 2012 and covers “Education services relating to health; conducting of courses relating to business management; etc. ” in class 41. The mark is a simple word mark without stylistic or graphic elements. In an Office Action dated 9 February 2015, the trademark examiner ruled that the mark could not be registered as, with respect to the services covered, it lacked a distinguishing character as required by Section 8(a) of the Trademark Ordinance 1972. The Examiner also considers that the requested mark is not registerable since it is descriptive and directly relates to the type or quality of the services provided which are transcendental meditation exercises and the training of transcendental meditation counselors contrary to Section 10(11). The Applicant claimed that the mark was not descriptive of the services provided and maximally may be considered as hinting at the services. Similarly, they claimed that the phrase Transcendental Meditation was a combination of words that is identified with the Applicant and only with them, since the combination was coined by the Maharishi who established the Maharishi Vedic University Ltd. The Applicant further asserted that the Global Transcendental Meditation Organization and all its branches was established by the followers of the Maharishi which the Applicant is associated with and is part of the same organizational structure as the Applicant. To support this assertion, the Applicant referred to exhibition 2 of Adv. Oyser’s Affidavit, where the definition of Transcendental Meditation taken from the Oxford Dictionary Online was reproduced. The Applicant failed to convince the Examiner that the mark was registerable and the Trademark Office rejected the mark on 28 January 2016. Israel Trademark Application No. 249554 is thus refused by Ms Bracha 20 December 2017.