Trademark
EU court: No protection for “i love” design on clothing
In many souvenir shops you can’t avoid it: the “i” with a red heart on clothing, bags or cups. A company wanted to have it protected as an EU brand – without success.
The online company Spreadshirt cannot have the well-known character combination of “i” and a red heart protected as an EU brand at certain points on top. The European Union’s court in Luxembourg thus confirmed decisions from the EU brand and dismissed a lawsuit by the company based in Leipzig. (Legal matters T-304/24 to T-306/24)
The EU brand office had rejected registration
Spreadshirt had applied to have three so -called position brands entered – the “i” with a heart symbol in the left chest area, on the inner label and outside in the neck area of clothing. The EU brand office had rejected the registration because the sign lacks the necessary distinction.
In the opinion of the office, consumers do not perceive the symbols as a trademark of a certain company regardless of their position. The sign is immediately understood as “i love” or “I love”.
The EU Court now confirmed this assessment. The judges say: “Even if it is claimed for certain precise positioning, it is not suitable to distinguish the goods in question from those of other companies”.
As early as 2021, Spreadshirt failed in court to have the “i Love” symbol entered as a brand – at the time without a specific position. The EU court had also declared the entry to be void because the symbol only consisted of the known character combination and had no sufficient distinction.
dpa
Source: Stern
