Brussels, 10/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The representation of the layout of a retail store, such as an “Apple” flagship store may be registered as a trade mark. That is the substance of the ruling made by the European Court of Justice on 10 July (C-421/13), rejecting the refusal of the German Patents Office to grant this trade mark to the layout of Apple retail stores.
The design of the Apple Store is protected by ruling on trademarks in the US. The US Patents Office agreed to register the design of Apple retail stores as a trademark. Apple subsequently sought to extend that trademark internationally. In 2013, its extension to German territory was refused, however, by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office on the grounds that the depiction of the space devoted to the sale of the undertaking's goods was nothing other than the representation of an essential aspect of that undertaking's business and it was not an indication of the commercial origin of the goods. ? Apple lodged an appeal against that decision with the Federal Patents Court, Germany, which called on the European Court of Justice to decide on the matter.
The Court found in favour of the US giant in a decision made on 10 July. The European Court of Justice believes that a representation, such as the one in the present case, depicting the layout of a retail store by means of an integral collection of lines, curves and shapes, may constitute a trade mark provided that it is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings. The Court, however, recommends that the appropriate authorities proceed to a case-by-case analysis in the application of the same criteria when assessing other signs that may be eligible for the status of a trademark. The German Federal Court will now draw on this decision in reaching its own decision on this case. (MD)