Answer ... According to the Trademarks Ordinance, a ‘mark’ is defined as “letters, numerals, words, devices or other signs or combinations thereof, whether two-dimensional or three-dimensional”.

The ordinance further defines:

• a ‘trademark’ as “a mark used, or intended to be used, by a person in relation to goods he manufactures or deals in”; and
• a ‘service mark’ as “a mark used, or intended to be used, by a person in relation to a service rendered by him”.

All of the provisions pertaining to trademarks apply equally to service marks. ‘Certification marks’ and ‘collective marks’ may be registered as trademarks subject to specific requirements.

A trademark may be:

• a word mark only;
• a picture mark only (eg, a logo, device or image); or
• a combination of both.

It may or may not include colour. To obtain protection for the use of a trademark in any colour or format, the trademark should be depicted in standard black letters or in black and white (for devices).

After Israel became a signatory to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the definition of a ‘trademark’ was expanded to include a broader range of marks, including sound marks.

Answer ... To qualify for registration, a mark must be distinctive – that is, it must be able “to distinguish the goods of the proprietor of the mark from those of other persons”. Distinctiveness can be either inherent or acquired through use.

Answer ... Section 11 of the Trademark Ordinance lists marks that are ineligible for registration. The main types of marks that are ineligible for registration are as follows:

• marks that infer a connection to, or patronage by, states, heads of states or their governments or institutions, or other well-known international organisations;
• marks that include terms such as ‘patent’, ‘patented’, ‘by royal letters patent’, ‘registered’, ‘registered design’, ‘copyright’ or ‘to counterfeit this is forgery’;
• marks that would be injurious to public policy or morality;
• marks that are likely to deceive the public, falsely indicating origin and encouraging unfair competition;
• marks that resemble religious emblems;
• marks that include the representation of a person, without the consent of that person or his or her survivors;
• marks that are identical or confusingly similar to a mark that has been registered in respect of the same goods or description of goods;
• marks that include characters or words that are in common use in trade, relating to goods or classes of goods or referring to their character and quality, unless these are distinctive within the meaning of Section 8(b) or 9 of the Trademarks Ordinance;
• marks that comprise a geographical name or surname, unless it has a distinctive character within the meaning of Section 8(b) or 9 of the Trademarks Ordinance;
• marks that misleadingly identify wine or an alcoholic drink containing a geographical signification; and
• marks that are identical or deceptively similar to a well-known mark, whether registered or not, in relation to similar or different goods, if they could suggest a connection between the applicant’s goods and those of the owner of the registered mark, to the detriment of the latter.