What are the boundaries when it comes to registering the name of
a place, country, city or town as a trade mark?
This is the question that the Grand Board of Appeal of the
European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is set to
decide when it hears its first ever oral appeal in a matter
involving the registration of the trade mark ICELAND.
The mark ICELAND was registered for a wide range of goods as
well as for retail services by Iceland Foods Limited, a major
British food retailer. The Icelandic Government took issue with the
registration of the ICELAND trade mark because, according to news
reports, Iceland Foods relied on its registration to prevent the
use of the name Iceland by Icelandic businesses in the promotion of
their goods across Europe.
