Category Archives: Trademarks & Design

Lawful uses of others’ trademarks: the Zara case

usi leciti di marchi altrui

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), on January 11th 2024 decided upon the interpretation of a rule relating to the use of trademarks of third parties as part of a case pitting the Spanish company owner of the “ZARA” trademark against an information service provider who launched an advertising campaign where the […]

Trademark filed in bad faith: EUIPO’s recent decision

The Cancellation Division of EUIPO has recently decided on the invalidity of the European figurative trademark no. 18118853 having as object the famous Banksy work called “The Flower Thrower”. Banksy’s “Flower Thrower” Trademark The application for invalidity, based on the applicant’s bad faith as well as on the descriptiveness and/or non-distinctiveness of the sign at […]

Rubik’s Cube and the non-registrability of the related 3D trademark

3D trademark Rubik's Cube

With decision of 20 October 2023 (case r 850/2022-1), the first Board of Appeals of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) confirmed the decision of the Cancellation Division, establishing the invalidity of the three-dimensional trademark constituted by the famous Rubik’s Cube. The first decision of the EUIPO Cancellation Division The “magic cube”, invented in […]

The Vespa Case: three dimensional trademark and copyright

three dimensional trademark

The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation recently decided on the “Vespa” case of the company Piaggio, with ruling no. 33100/2023, excluding that a product that has acquired artistic value can be registered as a three dimensional trademark. Are the notions of artistic value and substantial value similar? In 2001, art. 2 of the law no. […]