Intelligence

On 16 July 2025, the General Court delivered an important judgment in case T-105/23 confirming the invalidity of the EU word mark "ICELAND" for a broad range of goods and services.

In trademark law, descriptive terms cannot be monopolized as trademarks. Such indications must remain available for everyone. For example, the word "apple" cannot be a trademark for apples.

FinTech Comparative Guide for the jurisdiction of Iceland, check out our comparative guides section to compare across multiple countries

This post is catching up on a previously-missed fine issued on 9 May 2025, and first brought to wider attention by Global Investigations Review.

Earlier in the month, the EU General Court issued its decision on Iceland Foods Ltd's appeal of a decision of the Grand Board of Appeal of EUIPO to invalidate an EU trade mark registration for the ICELAND word mark.

This letter is clearly a marketing ploy, but I'll take the bait. There is quite a bit to unpack from Iceland's letter, with the main points relating to whether Iceland can obtain registered design...