ECJ STRAWBERRY SCENT TRADEMARK CASE
January 1st, 2006
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FRENCH perfume and clothing company has failed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to trademark the "smell of ripe strawberries" for use on packaging, but only because judges deemed this insufficiently precise to serve as a unique identifier. Eden SARL, of Paris, cited a previous case, where the ECJ had ruled non-visual signs, such as sounds or odours, could become trademarks "provided that they can be represented graphically" in packaging designs. However, opening the way for potential future more precise packaging ...
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