Chanel's Logo Cancels Registration For Interlocking Figurative Design

The General Court's 18 July 2017 decision in Chanel v EUIPO, case T-57/16, demonstrates that broad protection may be available for brands' monograms in Europe, in this case Chanel's intertwined "C".

The dispute which led to the Chanel v EUIPO case

In 2010, an individual named Li Jing Zhou registered the following "ornamentation" as a Community design:

Three years later, Chanel filed an action for invalidity on the grounds that the above design lacked novelty and individual character, relying in particular on its own monogram, which had been registered as a trade mark in France since 1989:

Both the Cancellation Division and the Third Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) rejected Chanel's action, on the grounds that Chanel's trade mark did not deprive the later design of novelty or individual character. Chanel appealed to the General Court.