The General Court in a press release of November 25, 2014 has decided it cannot be refused the registration of the shape of the Rubik’s Cube as a Community Trade Mark.
The shape of the unmentioned cube was registered before the OHIM in 1999 as a three-dimensional Community trade mark by a UK company, Seven Towns.
Its structure consists of a several colours squares characterized by grid-rotating capability to position different colours on different surfaces of the cube. This rotation system is the most important technical feature due to that it allows performing the game. However, the technical functions cannot be registered as a trademark.
This latter aspect was the main ground in which was based the application for the annulment of the three-dimensional mark filled by Simba Toys OHIM in 2006. However, the General Court (Case T-450/09 Simba Toys GmvHCo .KH / OHIM) has dismissed its application, confirming that the registration of the shape of the Rubik's Cube as a Community trade is completely valid.
The premises that support the judgment are, firstly, that the graphic representation of that cube does not involve a technical solution which would prevent it from being protected as a mark since the rotating capability of the vertical and horizontal lattices of the Rubik’s Cube does not result either from the black lines or the grid structure, but from an internal mechanism of the cube which is invisible. In addition, the Court states- registering the mark does not limit of make a body with rotating elements but only prevents to reproduce the typical shape of the Rubik Cube that makes it recognisable.
Lastly, the General Court affirms that the three-dimensional structure of the Rubik’s Cube has a distinctive character which enables consumers to identify the product in respect of which the mark is registered.
For this reasons, the General Court of the European Union concludes that, the registration of the shape of the Rubik’s cube as a Community trade mark cannot be refused.
Written by: Magali Contardi
Source: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2014-11/cp140158es.pdf
Image: Nikon D50. Under creative commons license. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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