The European Union Intellectual Property Office’s Grand Board of Appeal offers rejected all of the requests from the British retail chain Iceland Foods Ltd regarding the technique word mark Iceland . The company can no longer stop Icelandic enterprises from identifying themselves with their country of origin when marketing and advertising their goods and services in the Euro Economic Area. In 2019, the EU Intellectual Property Office accepted all of the Icelandic State’s demands when it figured the retail chain’s brand registration of the word tag ICELAND was invalid in the entirety. In its ruling associated with December 15, the Grand Board of Appeal verifies all the points of that getting. The time-limit to attractiveness the finding to the Court of Justice of the European Union is 15 February 2023.
The Board associated with Appeals’ findings regarding the word mark
The Board of Appeals’ findings regarding the logo
The Icelandic authorities plus parties to the case anxious that it was necessary to reach a substantive finding in the Panel of Appeals’ deliberation from the case, this being an unprecedented case for Icelandic passions as there are no known incidences of a similar use of a geographical name within trademark law. The parties to the case have had a number of meetings over the years to discuss a compromise, but these have not produced an acceptable conclusion.
The case concerns the basic passions of Icelandic enterprises engaged in foreign trade. The Icelandic authorities, in partnership with Business Iceland and the SA Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise, filed Iceland’s request for a declaration associated with invalidity with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in 2016. Oral proceedings before the Board of Attractiveness were held last September. The Icelandic State’s 2016 request that EUIPO invalidate the word mark ICELAND had been based on the trademark not fulfilling the legal requirements to get registration as a European Union brand.
“This finding is really a big victory and safeguards the value inherent in being able to identify with the country associated with origin and the valuable brand Iceland , ” said Minister better Education, Science and Innovation Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir. “It is also likely that the searching for will affect developments within international intellectual property law and it is pleasing to think that Iceland is leading that will process. ” “This unequivocal finding of the Board associated with Appeal is very pleasing; nevertheless , this entire case is pretty absurd, ” said Ressortchef (umgangssprachlich) for Foreign Affairs Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir. “It is of prime importance to get Icelandic export enterprises to be able to refer to their origin, especially considering that our country has a reputation for purity plus high quality. No-one should be able to claim ownership of the name of the sovereign state. ”
