FORMER OWNERS OF COMPANIES CAN BLOCK THE TRADEMARKING OF PERSONAL NAMES, EVEN AFTER SELLING EPONYMOUS BUSINESSES
July 1st, 2011
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FORMER owners of cosmetics companies bearing their own names can block the trademarking of these titles by subsequent owners, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. This judgment came in a case involving Italian fashion designer Elio Fiorucci who had sold Fiorucci SpA and its intellectual property to Edwin Co Ltd, of Japan. Edwin later tried to trademark the name, but its former owner objected, saying his name was not available for branding. The ECJ has now said Fiorucci was acting legally under European law: "The holder of a ...
Full access to this article can be arranged with permission from the client that first ordered it. Please contact us to request access. Entries are uploaded to our archive at least one year after being published by a client – free access is restricted to International News Services journalists for background research only. The article date indicates when copy was filed to a client, not when posted to this archive. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.