An earlier word mark for ‘Slimmer’, belonging to Baif International Products New York, had been registered for the same type of goods. Baif had asked the Court of Milan to order an injunction against MEC. The defending party sought, instead, for the sign ‘Slimmer’ to be declared invalid on the basis that it was a common word in the English language, hence lacking distinctiveness and being merely descriptive of the product’s function also in the Italian territory.