Composite EU trademarks: protection of non-distinctive elements

According to EU trademark law, the registration of laudatory and descriptive terms as trademarks must be refused. Competition must not be restrained by protecting terms that may be used in trade for advertising or determining the quality of a product. This rule applies also if the term is perceived as laudatory or descriptive in only a part of the EU. Only acquired distinctiveness of a term allows an exception to this rule.