©-LAW

Can ‘La Mafia se sienta a la mesa’  [‘se sienta a la mesa’ means ‘takes a seat at the table’]  be registered as a figurative EU trade mark (EUTM)  [see right]  for a variety of goods and services in Classes 25, 35 and 43 of the Nice Agreement (including clothing and a restaurant chain) or would a registration of this kind be contrary to accepted principles of public policy and morality? This morning the General Court (GC) held that the latter is the correct approach in its  decision in  La Mafia Franchises v EUIPO , T-1/17 . Background In 2006 an application for registration of the ‘La Mafia se sienta a la mesa’ in the Nice classes above was filed, and the trade mark was registered in 2007. In 2015 Italy filed an application with the EUIPO for a declaration that the contested mark was invalid in respect of all of the goods and services for which it had been registered. According to the Italian Republic this mark was contrary to what is n...

As this blog  reported  a couple of days ago, following his first  Opinion  in June 2017, last Tuesday Advocate General (AG) Szpunar issued his new  Opinion  in  Louboutin , C-163/16. Since then, the content and value of the Opinion have not been arguably correctly picked by some media, with some  even  summarizing it as follows: “ Can Christian Louboutin Trademark Red Soles? An E.U. Court Says No ”  [there are  so  many reasons why this headline is just wrong …] . All this has led Christian Louboutin to issue a press release, suggesting that some of the reports of the Opinion could be considered … ‘fake news’  [ here ,  here ,  here ] : “ While ordinarily Christian Louboutin does not comment directly on pending matters, we are making an exception in this instance to correct what appears to be misleading reports of the opinion of M. Szpunar, advocate general, which is seen to impact our ...