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The IPKat's favourite  Le Pliage When you have a handbag design bestseller with over 54 million copies sold around the world since its creation in 1993, the question concerning the IP rights vesting in it is not just an academic one. All this was at the centre of a recent decision of the Milan Court of First Instance ( decision 10280/2021 ). The case concerned Longchamp’s  Le Pliage  “cult” bag . The Milan court accepted to enforce Longchamp’s 3D EU trade marks (EUTMs) protecting the shape of  Le Pliage , but  refused  to acknowledge that copyright protection could also vest in such a design. Background In 2019, Longchamp initiated proceedings for trade mark and copyright infringement, as well as unfair competition, against a company making and selling a bag design closely resembling that of  Le Pliage , specifically  Le Pliage 1623 Nylon . The characterizing elements of  Le Pliage , according to Longchamp, would be the original combination o...

The Louboutin mark Is the Louboutin red sole mark a valid trade mark or not? At last - the moment all IP aficionados were waiting for has come!  The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has just issued its much-awaited judgment in  Louboutin  C-163/16 , ruling that  a  mark consisting of a colour applied to the sole of a shoe is NOT covered by the prohibition of the registration of shapes .  Such a mark does not consist ‘exclusively of the shape’. The question that the  Rechtbank Den Haag referred to the CJEU was the following: Is the notion of ‘shape’ within the meaning of Article 3(1)(e)(iii) of  [the  2008 Trade Mark Directive , ie the absolute ground for refusal concerning  signs consisting exclusively of "the shape which gives substantial value to the goods" ]   (‘Form’, ‘vorm’ and ‘forme’ in the German, Dutch and French language versions of the Trade Marks Directive respectively) limite...

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 ...

Every woman's dream red soles Can a colour be considered akin to a shape, so that a sign that consists exclusively of a colour "which gives substantial value to the goods" cannot be registered as a trade mark? As readers might notice, this question should be phrased differently under the new  Trade Mark Directive : Article 4(1)(e) therein prevents in fact registration as a trade mark of any sign that consists exclusively of "the shape, or another characteristic, which gives substantial value to the goods". However the question of whether a colour is to be regarded as a shape (and not just "another characteristic") is because under the 2008 Directive, Article 3(1)(e)(iii) therein prevents  [the general deadline for national implementations of the new directive is 14 January 2019]  registration of any sign which consists exclusively of "the shape which gives substantial value to the goods".  To add further complexity to this i...

The  shape  colour red Via a precious Katfriend who wishes to remain anonymous but nonetheless tweets  as  @TreatyNotifier  comes the news that a new reference for a preliminary ruling in the area of trade marks has just been made to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).  This is in the context of long-running litigation over the (in)famous Louboutin red soles. The question for the CJEU to address is whether the notion of 'shape' within Article 3(1)(e)(iii) of  Directive 2008/95  is limited to three-dimensional elements of a product or can also include two-dimensional ones like, for instance, a colour. Article 3 sets the absolute grounds for refusal of registration. Article 3(1)(iii) prevents registration of signs which consist exclusively of the 'shape' which gives substantial value to the goods. This Kat understands that not all language versions of the directive speak of 'shape'. Indeed, the French version refers to '...