Trade marks, registered designs and the monopolisation of functional shapes: a consideration of Lego and Dyson

Claire Howell

Research output: Contribution to journalLetter, comment/opinion or interviewpeer-review

Abstract

Legislation: Regulation 6/2002 on Community designs art.3(3)(e)
Directive 98/71 on the legal protection of designs art.7(1)

Cases: Dyson Ltd v Vax Ltd [2010] EWHC 1923 (Pat); [2011] Bus. L.R. 232 (Ch D (Patents Ct))
Lego Juris A/S v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) (C-48/09 P) Unreported September 14, 2010 (ECJ)

*E.I.P.R. 60 In Lego, the Court of Justice of the European Union denied registration for an exclusively functional shape mark despite the availability of other shapes capable of fulfilling the same function and in Dyson v Vax Mr Justice Arnold established that a design can not be registered for a purely functional shape even though another shape could fulfil the same required function.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)60-62
Number of pages3
JournalEuropean Intellectual Property Review
Volume33
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2011

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