Wrigley left to chew over ruling

The court felt the name was too descriptive

The world's biggest chewing gum manufacturer has been told that it cannot trademark one of its most popular brands in the EU.

The European Court of Justice ruled that Wrigley might not use Doublemint as a trademark for its chewing gum, arguing that the name was too "descriptive".

The announcement was made in a statement from the Luxembourg-based court on Thursday.

The US company's request to register Doublemint as a trademark in the EU was originally refused by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, in Alicante.

'Set aside'

The office said the words were descriptive and could not thus be registered.

The case then went to the European Court of First Instance, which said the juxtaposition of the words and the ambiguous meaning of the word when related to the products in question, meant the words lose their descriptive meaning.

Now, in the new ruling, the European Court of Justice has set that judgement aside.

Earlier this year Wrigley announced it had patented a form of gum containing the active ingredient in top-selling anti-impotence drug Viagra.