Luxembourg, 12/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Advocate General Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer has expressed sadness at the way the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, the most striking myth of the twentieth century, had been reduced to 'merchandising'. He slammed the insatiable merchandising and publicity machine that seizes control of artists. His comments were directed at Picasso's heirs who have control of the 'Picasso' trademark and leased it to car manufacturer Citroen as the name of one of its cars.
The Advocate General has published his opinions in the case of Pablo Picasso's heirs against the Alicante Trademark Office, which raised no objections to DaimlerChrysler's request to register the trademark 'Picaro'. Picasso's children and grandchildren, Claude and Paloma Ruiz Picasso, Maya Widmaier Picasso, Marina and Bernard Ruiz Picasso, argue that Picaro and Picasso sound similar and therefore it was not possible to register Picaro legally. They took the case to the European Court of First Instance, which ruled against them. In its ruling of 22 June 2004, the Court of First Instance ruled that the two names were not similar - Picasso is the name of a world-renowned artist, while Picaro is a Spanish literary figure known only to Spanish-speakers. The names are not similar visually or semantically, it concluded (see EUROPE 8732). The Picasso family asked the Court of Justice to annul the Court of First Instance's ruling. Advocate-General Ruiz-Jarabo said that the Court should not agree to their request because the Court of First Instance had not made any error of judgement and there was no danger of confusion between the two names. It is odd to see the name of Pablo Ruiz Picasso used in an appeal on banal judicial proceedings on the use of his second surname, commented the judge.
If the Court of Justice decides to rule in the next few months as recommended by the Advocate-General, then the Trademark Office may start the second stage of registering the trademark Picaro.
Picasso's heirs hold the trademark 'Picasso', lodged on 1 August 1997 (Ref: 614 867) for cars, buses, caravans and trailers and 'any type of land, air or water locomotion apparatus'.