When public domain works meet trade mark law: Norwegian Industrial Property Office applies EFTA Court’s judgment and dismisses applications to register Vigeland’s artworks as trade marks
One of the artworks that Oslo municipality tried to have registered as a trade mark: The Angry Boy (Sinnataggen) A few months ago this blog reported on an interesting and important decision issued by the EFTA Court, this being the court with jurisdiction over EFTA states that are parties to the EEA Agreements (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway): Case E-5/16 - Norwegian Board of Appeal for Industrial Property Rights – appeal from the municipality of Oslo . The decision followed a request for an advisory opinion from the Board of Appeal of t he Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO), and required consideration of whether and to what extent signs representing artworks by Gustav Vigeland and in which copyright protection has lapsed could be registered as trade marks under the previous EU Trade Mark Directive, ie Directive 2008/95 [EFTA countries are not part of the EU but are subject to EU legislation, being...