A recent ruling from the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court centred on a seemingly simple word: “ostepop” — the Danish term for a cheese puff.
The dispute was not really about the snack’s shape, colour or flavour. It concerned how clearly a dictionary must distinguish between an everyday word and a registered trademark.
The Danish dictionary described “ostepop” as a crispy, curved corn snack with cheddar flavour. It also noted — under grammar — that “Ostepops” is a registered trademark. The trademark owner argued that this clarification was not sufficiently prominent and should be included in the definition itself. A trademark can ultimately be lost if it becomes the ordinary name for a product.
