A trade mark dispute about the name Iceland highlights the issue
of trade marks in relation to geographic names.
A dispute has arisen in Europe between Iceland the country and
Iceland the brand – Iceland is a large UK-based supermarket
chain. The supermarket chain has an EU trade mark registration for
the name Iceland, a registration that it struggled long and hard to
get, overcoming multiple oppositions along the way. The country is
now threatening to take steps to have this trade mark registration
cancelled.
It's unclear what exactly led to this dispute. There are
suggestions that Iceland's tourism authority filed an
application to register its trade mark Inspired by Iceland, and
that the supermarket chain threatened to oppose it. But there are
also suggestions that Icelandic companies that have Iceland in
their name are being threatened with trade mark infringement
proceedings. Either way, relations between the two parties are
decidedly frosty.
