Trademarks are by far the most fun of the IP rights. So
let's look at a few recent trademark developments. The first
deals with the registration of geographic names and the others with
confusing similarity.
ICELAND – it's a country!
The decision of the EUIPO Grand Board of Appeal in the case of
Iceland v Iceland has been in the .
The court declared invalid an EU trade mark registration for the
name Iceland, a registration that belongs to a food company traded
in the UK for some 50 years, Iceland Foods Limited.
The court accepted that the registration of a country name as a
trade mark is theoretically possible, but, it said, real caution is
required. It made a number of points:
