UK online gambling giant Bet365 has won a partial victory in its ongoing quest to protect its brand identity in European Union member states.

On Thursday, the EU General Court (EGC) issued a ruling on Bet365’s challenge of a previous ruling that declined to enshrine trademark protections on the Bet365 brand because the terms ‘bet’ and ‘365’ were deemed insufficient to acquire “distinctive character.”

In 2007, Bet365 applied to trademark its name in the EU, but an examiner rejected the application, claiming ‘bet’ was a generic term and ‘365’ merely applied to the number of days in a year. Bet365 challenged this ruling, saying its extremely popular brand had acquired sufficient association in the minds of EU punters to warrant trademark protection.

In 2008, the examiner conceded that Bet365 had a point. Then in 2013, an individual named Robert Hansen filed to have Bet365’s trademark declared invalid, based on Hansen’s desire to trademark his own ‘b365’ brand.