Iceland Foods has recently lost its trade mark case with Iceland (the country) after the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) dismissed its appeal.
The dispute began back in 2019, when the Icelandic government submitted a claim to invalidate the food retailer’s EU trade mark registration.
Iceland Foods tried to appeal the above claim by insinuating that they did not intend to threaten Icelandic-based businesses, however the EUIPO Board rejected this appeal, meaning that the EU trade mark was cancelled.
In their decision, the EUIPO Board did not completely rule out the idea that country names can function as trade marks, stating that such method must be ‘approached with caution’. It continued by saying that “The monopolisation of a country name cannot lead to the inequitable situation in which traders with real and genuine connection to a certain geographic location are forced to constantly ‘look over their shoulder’” when using it as a trade mark.
Moreover, the Board confirmed that the average consumer is likely to make assumptions about the food retailer’s products based on origin. The court report notes that the food retailer had not attempted “to distance itself commercially from the country of Iceland”.
This decision is certainly a blow to the food retailer’s intellectual property portfolio and equally stands as a warning to brands that may be considering trade marking geographical/ country names to this extent.
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