Promotional Slogans and Trademark Registration

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Year: 2022
• Author: Rogier de Vrey

Speaker

Rogier de Vrey is an experienced Head of IP who specializes in advising on intellectual property and technology matters, with a specific focus on lifesciences. He completed his PhD in unfair competition law and has worked at prestigious institutions such as the European Commission and the Max Planck Institute in Munich during his studies. Rogier's practice concentrates on international intellectual property law, covering both transactions and litigation. He has expertise in areas such as parallel trade, anti-counterfeiting, trade secrets, licensing, exploitation, and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Apart from his legal practice, Rogier is also an associate professor at Utrecht University and a member of the Editorial Board of the Intellectual Property and Advertising Law Magazine (IER).

Topic

This e-presentation aims to provide an overview of the fundamental concepts of trademark protection of promotional slogans, with examples of recent judgments from the General Court of the European Union, such as T-253/20, which involved a dispute between Oatly AB and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) over the registration of a slogan as a trademark. The presentation will analyze the court's decision and explain the legal principles involved.

Finally, the presentation will delve into the special trademark rules applicable to promotional slogans. It will examine the specific requirements that slogans must meet to be eligible for trademark protection, such as distinctiveness, originality, and non-descriptiveness.

Overall, this e-presentation aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of trademark protection for promotional slogans, covering the basic principles, recent case law, and special rules applicable to these types of trademarks.

Related documents

Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the European Union trade mark (codification)(Text with EEA relevance)

Case C-398/08 P, 21 January 2010 (Vorsprung durch Technik)

Case C-468/01 P to C-472/01, 29 April 2004 (Procter & Gamble v OHIM)

Case C-353/03, 7 July 2005 (Have a break)

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