Tag: trademarks

The recent Italian trademark reforms: between Europe and homeland nostalgia

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Some important reforms have recently concerned our Code of Industrial Property.

First, the Italian legislator has implemented Trademark Directive 2015/2436/EU (previous comments on this blog about this Directive here and here) adopting Legislative Decree No. 15 of February 20, 2019 (text here; some comments here and here).

The Legislative Decree at issue came into force on March 23, 2019 and introduced in our Code of Industrial Property some important amendments, among which:

  • Abolishment of the “graphic” representation requirement of signs registrable as trademark. It can be now registered as trademark any sign which is distinctive and capable of being represented in a manner which enables the competent authorities and the public to determine the clear and precise subject matter of the protection afforded to the relevant proprietor. As a result, this provision has expanded the scope of the signs eligible to be registered as trademark, such as signs composed both of images and sounds.

The Italian PTO has technically adjusted its online filing platform with a view to allowing users to file applications for signs represented also in not graphic manners by means of .mp3 and .mp4 files, as explained in Circular of the Ministry of Economic Development No. 605 of March 29, 2019 (here).

  • Extension of shape marks’ absolute grounds of refusal to signs consisting of “another characteristic of the goods”. Given the abolishment of the “graphic” representation requirement, this provision aims at preventing that the registration of unconventional marks may confer on the relevant proprietor exclusive rights on characteristics of the goods with a technical function, substantial value or resulting from the nature of the goods, such as a colour or a sound. 
  • Additional grounds for opposition: (i) earlier reputed mark; (ii) earlier well-known mark under Article 6-bis of Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property; (iii) earlier designation of origin or geographical indication or earlier application for designation of origin or geographical indication.

The implementing Legislative Decree does not provide any transitional provision on the applicability of these new grounds of opposition. In particular, it is not clear whether or not the ground of reputation applies to oppositions proceedings against trademark applications filed/published before the entry into force of the Decree at issue.

Although there would be room to maintain that an opposition may be grounded on reputation irrespective of the date of filing/publication of the contested application in light of the fact that the relevant younger mark could be considered invalid on the basis of the same ground, the issue remains questionable. What is certain is that this law uncertainty is detrimental to trademark rights enforcement.

  • Introduction of administrative invalidity/revocation actions before the Italian PTO. These actions are not immediately available. We shall wait for the relevant Ministry of Economic Development implementing regulation for they to come into force (as known, Member States have until January 14, 2023 to implement the actions at issue in their national laws).
  • Introduction of certification marks. Any natural or legal person, including institutions, authorities and bodies having law requirements to guarantee the origin, nature or quality of certain products or services may apply for the registration of a sign as certification mark provided that it does not carry out any business involving the supply of products or services of the kind certified.

Unlikely the EU certification mark, the national certification mark may consist in signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the geographical origin of the goods or services certified. The Italian PTO may refuse registration to such mark where it may cause situations of unjustified privilege or prejudice the development of similar initiatives whatsoever in the same area. The certification mark shall not entitle the proprietor to prohibit a third party from using in the course of trade such geographical signs or indications, provided that third party uses them in accordance with honest practices in industrial or commercial matters.

The implementing Legislative Decree has provided for a transitional period of one year as from its entry into force for the conversion of the collective marks filed/registered under the previous law into collective or certification marks governed by the new law subject to their revocation.

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Second, the Italian legislator has adopted Legislative Decree No. 34/2019, the so called “Decreto Crescita”, converted into law, with amendments, by Law No. 100 of June 28, 2019 (text here), including, among others, amendments to our Code of Industrial Property (some comments here and here).

The “Decreto Crescita” has introduced a new category of mark under Article 11 ter of our Code: the “historic mark of national interest”. This is a sign that has been registered/used as mark for at least fifty years in relation to products/services of a national undertaking of excellence which has been historically linked with the national territory. Any proprietor or licensor of this kind of mark may apply for its recordal in the newly established special register of “historic mark of national interest”. This recordal entitles these subjects to use the new public logo “historic mark of national interest” in their marketing and promotional activities.

The identification of this new kind of mark seems to be not easy in the practice. Proving continuous use of a mark for at least fifty years is certainly too burdensome for a proprietor or licensor; moreover, the legal requirements of “excellence” of the relevant undertaking and its historic link with our country seems to imply a discretional rather than a legal assessment.

The legislator has also introduced some economic measures related to this new mark.

The proprietor or licensor of a mark recorded in the above-mentioned new register or that anyway meets the legal requirements provided by Article 11 ter that intends to close its Italian production site for (i) cessation of its activity or (ii) delocalization of the same outside the national territory, both implying a collective redundancy, shall inform of this the Ministry of Economic Development as well as of, among others, the possible actions to find new buyers and the chances for employees to launch a takeover bid or to recover the assets anyway. As a result, the Ministry shall initiate formal proceedings aimed at determining appropriate public interventions into the venture capital of the relevant undertakings through the newly established economic “Fund for the safeguard of historic mark of national interest”.

These new economic measures – that in the wording of the law are meant to safeguard the “historic mark of national interest” as well as the employment levels and the continuation of business in Italy – do actually introduce a new procedure of management of business crisis involving public institutions and funds, which arises some concerns under EU competition law and the free movement of goods and capitals principles. Moreover, the fact that any subject that meets the (uncertain) legal requirements provided by Article 11 ter irrespective of the recordal of its mark in the register of “historic mark of national interest” is subject to this procedure is particularly worrisome: it seems to leave room for ex-officio economic public interventions clearly not in line with our constitutional law.

Finally, it is worth mentioning also the new provisions that prohibit the registration of signs linked with the police as well as of words, pictures or signs detrimental to the image or reputation of Italy. It seems that these new provisions follow a demagogic political purpose rather than a reasoned trademark legislative policy. As a matter of fact, their application in the practice seems to be rather limited, since our Code of Industrial Property already prohibits the registration of signs that have a public interest or that are contrary to law, public policy or accepted principle of morality without mentioning any national interest.

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The latest step of this package of reforms is the Italian Minister of Economic Development’s Decree of January 10, 2020 (text here), which has established the modalities for recording the “historic mark of national interest” in the new special register and has instituted the following official logo (press release here; a comment here).

marchiostorico

In conclusion, the recent Italian trademark reforms seem to follow two different directions: the harmonization of our Code of Industrial Property with EU trademark law on one side and an approach that uses the mark as a tool for the political purpose of promoting a generic national interest on the other side.

Ilaria Carrino

| Italian Minister of Economic Development’s Decree of January 10, 2020 | Legislative Decree No. 34/2019 (“Decreto Crescita”), converted into law, with amendments, by Law No. 100 of June 28, 2019 | Circular of the Ministry of Economic Development No. 605 of March 29, 2019 | Italian Legislative Decree No. 15 of February 20, 2019 |

May #hashtags safely rely on trademark protection?

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In recent years, trademark offices worldwide have been assisting to a new trend: brand owners are increasingly trying to protect hashtags as trademarks. However, some substantive differences existing between these two figures suggest that trademark protection is most of the time improper – and even unnecessary. This, for a number of reasons.

  1. A hashtag can be defined as the symbol # followed by a word, a phrase or a symbol. Hashtags are used on social media in connection to a certain content to synthetically describe or comment it. They were firstly introduced on Twitter, then the main other social networks followed. It must be emphasized, even for legal purposes, that they are freely usable by anyone.

twitter

Technically, the social network indexes and groups all the contents using the same hashtag. Hashtags function as hyperlinks: by clicking on a single hashtag, the user is redirected to a page where all the contents using the same hashtag have been grouped and organized together by the social network.

From a consumers’ view, hashtags are helpful in following topics and finding contents. From a brand’s view, they are useful to control and attract online consumer traffic and enhance the brand appeal. In particular, hashtags are used in advertising campaigns to redirect users to the company website and social networks, where the consumer experience can be enhanced and the brand loyalty reinforced. From a social network’s view, they are a new way of organizing information and topics.

  1. Let’s come to trademarks. As known, besides their essential legal function of indicating the origin of the product or service covered by the trademark, they can perform, if famous (“with reputation”) other factual functions, such as that of ‘guaranteeing’ the quality of a product or service, or that of supporting advertising of, and investment on, the ‘brand’. However, it must be noted that quite often hashtags are not perceived as trademarks, as they do not perform any of the above functions.

Focusing on the distinctive function, if a sign does not have distinctive character the trademark owner shall retain its exclusive right only by proving that the sign has acquired – typically by strong advertising – a ‘secondary meaning’ – i.e.- the capacity to identify, in the eyes of consumers, the product or service as originating from a firm.

Now, as concerns hashtags, it seems all too evident that, except when the word component is wholly or in part of coincident with a trademark already known on the market (e.g. #cokecanpicks or #CokeZeroSugar, as in the below example), it is indeed hard to say that a hashtag is inherently distinctive: in such cases, it would be normally necessary to prove secondary meaning to secure a valid registration.

coke

In this respect, hashtags shall be considered as a mix of domain names and slogans. As for the top level domain names such as “.com” or “.it”, the symbol “#” is considered as not capable of conferring to the sing any distinctive value. Therefore, if the word or the phrase composing a hashtag are not per se distinctive, the presence of the symbol # cannot save the trademark from being prevented registration for lacking of distinctive character. On the other hand, hashtags are often composed by small phrases and shall, therefore, be compared to slogans. As for slogans, the proof of the existence of a distinctive character is more difficult than for ordinary trademarks, as slogans are usually not perceived as source indicators. Against this background, it seems more efficient to try to secure registration to a phrase or word, and not to the same in the form of a hashtag.

Further, their functional character may prevent hashtags registration as trademarks. The functionality doctrine, based on the ‘imperative of availability’ (“the need to keep free”, “Freihaltebeduerfnis”) prevents to use trademark law for inhibiting legitimate competition by allowing a single company to claim a monopoly either on a descriptive term or a useful product feature. And a product feature is considered functional if it is essential to the use or purpose of a good. Now, as hinted, hashtags function as hyperlinks and tags, to group contents. This function is essential for their success.

In the light of the considerations just submitted registering a hashtag as trademark could be quite difficult. That said, provided that a company succeeds in obtaining trademark registration, its enforcement towards third parties could be difficult for a number of reasons:

a) in most cases, hashtags are not perceived as trademarks. As said, they are typically a form of metadata or tag, through which a word or a phrase becomes a searchable expression on a social network. On the one hand, therefore, it is inevitably that the hashtag registered as trademark is used by all social network users willing to do so. Such users would likely not perceive the hashtag as a trademark, a source indicator, but more likely as a descriptive text or as a tool having a specific function.

Obviously, though, trademark owners have an interest to control the use of their hashtag, if registered as trademark, in order to protect it from dilution and/or consumer confusion with a similar trademark. Here lies one of the most strident paradoxes of hashtag registration as trademarks: as trademark registrants, hashtag owners are encouraged to enjoin unauthorized third parties from using their registered sign. At the same time, it is their interest to encourage social network users to make use of the hashtag for commercial benefits — expand brand awareness, ‘lock in’ consumers, and so on. More precisely, brand owners use hashtags in social media contexts for marketing purposes, often in a way that results detrimental to their distinctive character (and, as a consequence, to their possible enforcement). They convert the hashtag into a means through which the public is encouraged to comment, share and ‘talk’ about the brand and its products or service, while gathering information and data about consumers tastes, preferences and so on. Thus, again, notwithstanding a possible registration, even registered hashtags are hardly used as indicators of origin, but merely as collectors of data and comments (of course not possibly subject to any monopoly).

b) Even when hashtags are used and perceived as trademarks, descriptive use, functionality, legitimate use play in most cases play a crucial role in excluding the existence of a trademark infringement.

Here, the constitutionally ranking principle of freedom of expression would play a role in determining where there is a legitimate use of a hashtag. If people are encouraged to use a hashtag to get involved in a topic and participate to a discussion, their use of the hashtag, as such, shall be considered indeed legitimate under the principle of freedom of expression.

c) Therefore, the sole relevant case when the use of hashtags could be protected under trademark law seems that of competitors adopting hashtags confusingly similar to a hashtag that includes (or corresponds to) a registered trademark. This position seems reflected by the main social networks policies, preventing the use of third parties trademarks when such use creates confusions for consumers.

But even in such a case, there is room to affirm that the use of an identical or similar hashtag by a competitor is legitimate. Considering that the hashtag is a means to tag and categorize contents, the well-known case law on keyword advertising could well apply to a third party use of a registered hashtag. In this context, if the use a third party hashtag by a competitor enhances competition and offers consumes an alternative or a wider range of offer, this use could be considered fair according to the keyword advertising case law.

One last remark. Trademark law is just one of several laws that are relevant to the use of hashtags. Among others, privacy law, consumer law, licensing, image rights and advertising are strictly connected to hashtags use and shall be carefully considered by all users adopting hashtags.

Maria Luigia Franceschelli

Shape trademarks: the Court of Florence’s innovative interpretation of “substantial value”

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The Court of Florence recently expressed an interesting view on the interpretation of absolute grounds of registration invalidity provided for signs constituted by the shape of a product, and, in particular, substantial value.

The case concerned the shape of the world wide famous Hermes’ “KELLY” and “BIRKIN” bags, the shape of which was registered as 3D trademark in Italy and before the EUIPO.

Capture

Hermes alleged the infringement of its famous trademarks by an Italian company offering for sale bags highly similar to the ones protected with Hermes shape trademarks. The alleged infringer resisted claiming, as usual in these cases,  that the above trademarks were invalid since, besides other things, they consist of a shape giving substantial value to the bag.

The Court of Florence dismissed such claim, excluding the existence of a substantial value with an unusual (and deeply interesting) interpretation of this prevention.

Firstly, the decision (available here) defines substantial value as a real and concrete aesthetic plus-value – relevant per se to the product, being instead irrelevant the existence of any particular decoration or added part – that cannot be separated from the product itself and is capable of prevailing on the product’s shape features that are necessary to its function.

Then, the Court expressly excluded that the mere ornamental attitude of the product’s appearance could be of relevance in the evaluation on the existence of a substantial value. Differently from the main case law on this ground of refusal (see decision of 15 February 2012 of the Court of Venice on Crocs shoes or decision of 16 June 2015 of the Court of Milan on Flou’s Nathalie bed), the decision essentially denies that substantial value consists in the capability of the shape to influence the consumer’s choice of purchase, so to be itself the main reason why the product is in fact chosen and bought. In the Court’s view, this capability of the object’s shape to catch the consumers’ attention is connected only with trademark reputation.

Only when the aesthetic appearance of the product’s ornamental shape is so relevant to give a particular aesthetic value inseparable from the product itself trademark registration is prevented. Having this interpretation of substantial value in mind, the Court affirmed that “KELLY” and “BIRKIN” bags where valid trademarks as their shape trademark may be separated from the product itself and does not merely consist in the standard appearance of bags.

This decision interestingly tries to plot a demarcation line between substantial value and trademark reputation/distinctiveness that are often overlapped in the context of the discussions on substantial value. The distinction proposed by the Court of Florence could indeed be of help in drafting a clear and new definition of substantial value, whose interpretation is still not crystal clear when applied to real cases. As a matter of fact, and as actually noticed by the Vespa case (see here), the current interpretation of this condition often leads the trademark owner to deny the attractiveness and distinctiveness of the shape of a product when substantial value is under discussion on the basis that an actual recognition of the shape of the product on the market may lead to the assertion of the existence of a substantial value.

The interpretation of the Court of Florence would not fall into this trap and appears to be more logical in the overall context of the trademark protection, as it denies any relevance of the trademark distinctive character in the context of absolute grounds of registration invalidity provided for signs constituted by the shape of the product. This interpretation, although interesting, is however new and currently isolated. While certainly providing food for thought, it downplays the meaning, and legal sense , of the requisite of substantial value as a reason to attract consumers. If only reputation is attractive, what is the meaning, and sense, to verify the occurrence of a substantial value? ‘Substantial’ to what effect?!

Maria Luigia Franceschelli

Court of Florence, case No. 5850/2010, 31 January 2017, Hermes International Scpa, Hermes Sellier SA, Hermes Italie SpA vs. Papini Paolo & C. Snc and Corsini Giorgio di Gianna e Paola Corsini Snc.

The shape of the worldwide famous Vespa obtains protection in Italy under copyright law

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Piaggio, the Italian company producer of the world wide famous Vespa scooter, was recently sued by the Chinese company Zhejiang Zhongneng Industry Group (“ZZIG”) in a quite complex case.

ZZIG offered for sale three scooters named “Revival”, protected by a Community design registration no. 001783655-0002, “Cityzen” and “Ves”, the shape of which was not covered by any registered IP right in Italy or in the European Union.

Capture ZZIG

As to Piaggio, the company owns the Italian 3D trademark no.1556520 claiming priority of the Community trademark no. 011686482, filed on 7 August 2013 and registered on 29 August 2013.

Capture Vespa

When Piaggio obtained the seizure of the three above motorbike models in the context of a Fair held in Milan, the Chinese company started an ordinary proceeding on the merits before the Court of Turin against Piaggio, seeking the declaration of non-infringement of Piaggio Vespa 3D trademark by its “Revival”, “Cityzen” and “Ves” scooters. Besides, it asked a declaration of invalidity of Piaggio’s Vespa trademark, based on the fact that it was anticipated by their design and thus not novel. Also, it held that the 3D trademark was void, as it does not respect the absolute ground for refusal established by the law.

Piaggio resisted and asked the Court of Turin to reject the above claims, declare that the Vespa shape is protected under copyright law, trademark law and unfair competition law and that those rights were infringed by ZIGG three models of scooters. As a matter of fact, Vespa was offered for sale by Piaggio since 1945.

First of all, the Court of Turin declared that the Vespa trademark does not lack of novelty, as it reflects a model of Vespa marketed since 2005, before the commercialization of ZZIG first scooter, i.e. “Cityzen”. Moreover, the Court of Turin excluded the existence of any absolute ground for refusal, stating that its shape was not technical nor standard and not even substantial as the reason why consumers chose the Vespa were not merely aesthetical. Based on these findings, the Court finally affirmed that only the “Ves” scooter constitute an infringement of Piaggio trademark.

This  said, the Court of Turin further held that the Vespa shape is eligible for protection under copyright law, as it is since long time worldwide recognized as an icon of Italian design and style, shown in advertising and movies, presented plenty of times at museum and exhibitions and part of many books, articles, magazines and publications. All considered, safe and sound evidence show that the shape of Vespa is unequivocally believed to be an artistic piece of designs by the main communities of experts worldwide. Nevertheless, the Court held that, again, only Ves scooter infringed Piaggio rights vested on its scooter as it presents features similar to the ones protected both under the Vespa trademark and copyright.

The decision (full text here) is indeed interesting as it critically examines the similarities and differences between the “original” good and the ones that are claimed to be infringing products and, while asserting the eligibility for protection of the Vespa shape both under trademark and copyright law, it excludes infringement for two products through a detailed and careful examination. This narrow approach is indeed interesting because it affirms the principle that the infringement of designs protected under copyright law shall be evaluated with an analytical examination similar to those applied in cases of trademark infringement.

A doubt might remain about the overlapping of trademark and copyright protection. Since the former never expires as long as the product is on the market (plus the subsequent five years, according to Italian law), one might ask what advantage for the right holder might subsist by ‘adding’ a protection limited in time, such as copyright’s. The answer might be: the dual protection functions as a ‘parachute’ for the case that one of the two, in a subsequent Judgement (Appeal or High Court: Cassazione in Italy) should be successfully challenged by a competitor.

Maria Luigia Franceschelli

Court of Turin, case No. 13811/2014, 6 April 2017, Zhejiang Zhongneng Industry Group, Taizhou Zhongneng Import And Export Co. vs Piaggio & c. S.p.a..