Abstract

In this gloss to the judgement of the Supreme Court of 5 July 2012, ref. no. IV CSK 23/12, the authoress tackles the issues of permissible use of descriptive designations and cumulative protection of trademarks under the intellectual property and copyright law. As regards the first issue, the authoress believes that the Supreme Court was correct to find that the defendant used the image of a pail on cheese packaging for the descriptive purpose and therefore may claim that the use of her informative designation was permissible. The protection of the plaintiff’s trademark does not include prohibition of using informative designations by the defendant.

As regards cumulative protection of trademarks under the copyright and intellectual property law, the authoress points out that insofar as the use of copyright terminology (“public domain”, “inspired work”) by the Supreme Court is correct with respect to the issue at hand, seeking copyright protection for the idea seems to be unjustified. The idea of using any symbol to distinguish a commodity is the main criterion of protection awarded under trademark regulations.