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Sep 26, 2009
Jens Triebel, Spamer Triebel Inc., South Africa

Lotto is a game of chance


Jens Triebel, Spamer Triebel Inc., South AfricaIn a judgment just handed down South Africa’s highest court of appeal ruled that trade mark registrations for LOTTO had wrongly been entered and wrongly remained on the register, and ordered their cancellation. The word “lotto”, the court ruled, had by the time of the registration of the LOTTO trade marks and well before already entered into the public domain and could not be monopolized in the gaming industry. While not bound by relevant decisions of OHIM regarding the generic and non-distinctive character of the word ‘lotto’, the court noted that its decision was consistent with the approach taken by OHIM. read more