The Absurdity Returns: Iceland Foods Appeals Invalidation Of Its Trademark
from the on-ice dept
I really cannot believe we’re back here. Way back in 2016 we wondered aloud who gets to trademark the word “Iceland”. Confused? Well, Iceland Foods is a grocery in the UK that’s been around since the 1970s. Iceland is also the name of a sovereign nation established in the early 1900s. In 2016, Iceland Foods finally got a trademark on its brand name after years of trying. It then chose to block a trademark application in the EU for “Inspired by Iceland”. The applicant of that mark was the nation of Iceland. The nation, as you might assume, was not pleased and petitioned EUIPO to invalidate the Iceland Foods mark entirely, which it did in 2019. The first part of the title of that last post I did was The End of Absurdity.
Absurdity, as it turns out, does not die so easily. Iceland Foods has decided to appeal the decision to the Grand Board of the EUIPO, which started hearing the case a week or so ago.
Iceland Foods’ managing director Richard Walker has said the supermarket will “vigorously defend” its intellectual property rights, Grocery Gazette reports.
“We have traded successfully under our name in the UK since 1970, and today it is one of the UK’s most recognised brands. We had sincerely hoped that we would be able to avoid last week’s hearing and reach an amicable agreement. While we will vigorously defend Iceland Foods’ intellectual property rights where there is any risk of confusion between our business and those of another business, this would not restrict Icelandic producers describing goods or services as coming from Iceland.”
That last comment is belied by the grocery’s decision to previously block trademark applications made by Iceland to do exactly that. Those representing Iceland likewise don’t trust Walker’s company to keep to its word.
Margrét Hjálmarsdóttir a the senior lawyer of the Icelandic Intellectual Property Office said that if the country lost the case “it would mean that Icelandic companies might not be able to use the word Iceland in their trademarks to identify the products they are selling.”
Which is all, or should be, entirely besides the point. At the end of the day, the EU granting a trademark to a private UK company for the name of a member nation in the European Economic Area is roughly as absurd as a thing could possibly be. On top of that, the rules for trademarking the names of geographic areas are supposed to be very, very stringent. And add to that that trademarks are chiefly meant to be a source identifier, whereas granting the mark back to Iceland Foods is potentially confusing as to the source of its goods (does it come from Iceland?), and this is all absolute parody that happens to be real.
Hopefully EUIPO will shut this down, though the commentary appears to be that that could take months, or longer.
Filed Under: euipo, iceland, trademark, uk
Companies: iceland foods
Comments on “The Absurdity Returns: Iceland Foods Appeals Invalidation Of Its Trademark”
OK, require Iceland Foods to put this right under their name on every label: “Not made in Iceland.”
'They let you trademark WHAT? Let's just revoke that shall we?'
Hopefully EUIPO will shut this down, though the commentary appears to be that that could take months, or longer.
This should be an open and shut case requiring less than an hour to go from start to finish so the idea that it will take months is somehow even more insane than the trademark itself, and given they got a trademark on the name of a country for their grocery store that is really saying something.
Re: Simple reason
The reason it takes months is because lawyers are involved, and they bill by the hour.
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Like the speed of an Icelandic glacier then…
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It’s called “due process”. Often unnecessary and can lead to absurdities like this, but when it’s needed, boy are you glad it’s there.
The alternative is countries with pseudo rule of law, where whim rather than statute actually rule – like China and Russia.
Well, if a music publisher and a tech company can both trademark the name of a fruit… The issue in this case isn’t that a company wants to trademark the name of a company, it’s that it’s so aggressive in ‘defending’ against uses of the name of the actual country in the same fields. If they had ever backed off for all of five seconds, there wouldn’t even be any problem.
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*The issue in this case isn’t that a company wants to trademark the name of a country… (-_Q)
In the uk
Iceland is the name of a freezer shop and has been for all of my life.
I mean, the word’s written in English not icelandic. Why don’t they have their own name for their country? And what about other lands that are icey? There’s massive potential for confusion there!
Far better that we keep the British definition for the English word. The icelanders need to come up with a better name for their country.
Long live the king!
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Time to jump on the bandwagon! Who’ll be the first to register the trademark “Royaume-Uni Aliments” in France?
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Nah, who wants to trademark “Buckingham Palace” in England?
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No less stupid than any of your other arguments.
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Apart from being a copyright maximalist, you’re also a fucking colonialist too?
Figures.
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While the OP’s post is rather stupid and somewhat obnoxious (always assuming it isn’t an asinine attempt at humour), I can’t see anything colonialist about it. It’s small minded nationalism verging on Jingoistic, yes, but where is the colonialism? It seems more like “don’t let foreigners dictate our language to us, no matter how badly we use it” than “we’re morally better than you, so now we rule you”. It’s almost as if you’re in competition with Sabroni to see who can be the most stupid in public.
Amusing that this is in an EU institution after Brexit.
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Try reading.
Re: Re: Re:2
I did read it, Sabroni. See my reply above to understand why you’re completely wrong as well as engaging in racism.
Re: Re: Re:3 re: I did read it, Sabroni
I post as me, I’m not involved in this conversation.
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Regardless, Sabroni is rather stupid and somewhat obnoxious. He’s the sort of tard who’d dismember a grandmother if it meant copyright law got enforced.
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Why don’t they have their own name for their country?
Actually, they do: Ísland. It’s us English speakers that insist on calling it Iceland, ignorant troll.
Re: Re: island
Yes, but a foreign language should be something no-one understands!
Re: Re: re: ignorant troll
And I’m not ignorant!!
Re: https://forebears.io/surnames/sabroni
Sorry bro, your name is already taken. Find another one. I hear Daftasafencepost is free.
When I think of Iceland, I think of fermented shark and traditional foods from Iceland (and at worst, the Scandinavian region), not a fucking grocery chain offering British cuisine.
So…
Unless Iceland Foods offers the infamous fermented shark meat, the damn chain better start looking for another name.
“And add to that that trademarks are chiefly meant to be a source identifier, whereas granting the mark back to Iceland Foods is potentially confusing as to the source of its goods (does it come from Iceland?)”
Whilst I agree that it was ridiculous to grant the trademark in the first place,the above quote from the article is just as ridiculous, indeed, borderline stupid.
From where I am sat I can see items from Celestion, Linn, Apple, Pioneer, Sony and Philips. In what universe would those trademarked names tell me from where they are sourced?
Second, maybe us Brits aren’t quite as stupid as to get Iceland (the country) confused with Iceland (the shop). Ask any Brit where Iceland is and they will give you directions to the shop, assuming they know where one is located, not the fucking airport.
While most Brits may not be so stupid that they can’t tell the difference between a store and a country, apparently you are too stupid to read and understand an article that clearly explains that this action is happening because Iceland (the store) has already tried to abuse its trademark, trying to block a reasonable application for a trademark from Iceland (the country).
Do the same to them
Why not turn around and do the same thing to them?
The government of Iceland should create some new businesses called “British Foods” and “English Foods”, and maybe “Great Britain Foods” for good measure.
Tough luck if anyone in Iceland thinks any of these stores actually sell British food.
However, if the purpose of copyright is to.avoid customer confusion, I wonder how many people think Iceland Foods sells food from Iceland?
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However, if the purpose of copyright is to avoid customer confusion…
This article is listed in the trademark category to avoid commenter confusion, but it obviously failed. (-_Q)
Iceland Foods’ managing director Richard Walker has said the supermarket will “vigorously defend” its intellectual property rights,
Lol you have none in this regard.