Nail in the coffin for brands: Lack of distinctiveness – KÖLNER DOM
It’s not easy to think of a concept – similar to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity – that, counterintuitively, involves the relativity of apparently fixed quantities. However, the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) may have produced such a phenomenon: their case law on the distinctiveness and thus the protectability of the names of famous buildings as trade marks. The two decisions have implications for a large number of commercially relevant cases, such as trade marks for fan merchandise or event trade marks. The lack of distinctiveness of a mark should therefore be carefully examined.