Alert: High Court upholds decision that IWATCH is descriptive (Apple v Arcadia)

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IP & IT analysis: The High Court has dismissed an appeal by Apple Inc in relation to a decision by the Registrar of Trade Marks that the trade mark IWATCH was descriptive of certain goods in class 9. The court rejected the argument that the hearing officer was wrong to hold that the class 9 specification covered smartphones in the shape of a watch or smart watches, and noted that it would, in principle, have been open to Apple to try to devise a more restricted specification of goods that excluded smart watches, but that it had made no attempt to do so. The court considered that the hearing officer was correct to conclude that the trade mark was descriptive of computer software, and specifically computer software incorporated in smart watches. It also held that the hearing officer was fully entitled to conclude that IWATCH had not acquired a distinctive character in relation to smart watches.