Abstract

The gloss deals with the decision of the General Court which upheld the trademark registration of a three dimensional sign representing Rubik's Cube. The Court acknowledged the inherent distinctiveness of the sign taking into account the black-and-white lines which give the cube the characteristic appearance of a ‘black cage’. Therefore, the Court rejected the application of absolute functional exclusions set in Art. 7 (1) (e)( i)-(iii) of the Regulation 207/2009, by taking into account only the graphic representation of the shape such as contained in the application for registration - which, in the opinion of the Court, failed to describe any technical function - and the classification of the goods chosen by the applicant. It would be interesting to see whether the CJEU confirms the General Court’s conclusions on the aforementioned matters.