The CJEU has recently set aside a
judgment of the General Court which had confirmed trade mark
protection for the Rubik's Cube. It will now for the EUIPO to reconsider whether the
three-dimensional trade mark in the shape of the Rubik's Cube
is eligible for protection. Thus, a legal conflict that has kept
trade mark practitioners on their toes for some time continues to
the next round.
What happened so far? In the 1990s, Seven Towns, a UK-based
company, successfully registered a three-dimensional EU trade mark
in respect of "three-dimensional puzzles" for
the above representation of the Rubik's Cube:
Back in 2006, Simba Toys filed a cancellation request against
this registration. The German toy manufacturer argued that the
trade mark should not have been registered as it had a technical
function within the meaning of Art. 7(1)(e)(ii) EUTMR. According to this provision, signs are
barred from registration if they consist exclusively of the shape
of goods which is
