An application to register “Jesus” for jeans has been rejected in UK
by the Patent Office Registrar sometime in 2003. Along with UK it has been
rejected in many other countries including Germany, Switzerland, China, Hungary
and Ireland. However, the brand was registered in Belgium, The Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Austria, France, Italy and Spain.
It was held that it has religious significance and would be “morally
offensive” and not merely distasteful based on the views of right thinking members
of the public. The application was rejected under section 3(3)(a) of the
Trademarks Act, 1994 since it was “contrary to public policy or to accepted
principles of morality.”
It was further held that the name “Jesus” would be debased if used
to sell jeans and other personal use products like soaps and shoes and most
British people would associate the name “Jesus” with the son of God.
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