European Court Invalidates Two Louis Vuitton Community Trademarks
April 24th, 2015
Louis Vuitton Malletier v. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM)
The OHIM has invalidated two of Louis Vuitton’s Community trademarks after a German company challenged their validity. The marks in contention are Louis Vuitton’s chess board pattern featured in dark brown/beige and black/grey combination patterns. German Retailer, Nanu-Nana claimed that both color combinations have failed to acquire distinctiveness across all EU member states. The OHIM agrees with Nanu-Nana and stated that “the juxtaposition of two elements that are not in themselves distinctive cannot alter the perception of the relevant public as to the absence of distinctive character, ab initio, of the contested mark.”