Rubik’s Cube firm left puzzled after losing EU trademark
Written by News on 24/10/2019
The owner of the Rubik’s Cube has lost the right to an EU trademark.
Rubik’s Cube was granted the trademark for the shape of the classic puzzle game in 1999, but in 2017 the EU-wide protection was pulled.
The General Court of the European Union on Thursday upheld the decision to remove the multi-coloured cube’s trademark protection.
The court said: “Given that the essential characteristics of that shape are necessary to obtain the technical result consisting of the rotating capability of that product, that shape could not be registered as an EU trademark.”
Rubik’s Brand Ltd is able to appeal against the decision one final time.
UK-based Seven Towns, which manages the toy’s intellectual property rights and is connected to Rubik’s Brand Ltd, registered the shape of the toy as a three-dimensional EU trademark with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in 1999.
The latest ruling means the puzzle’s distinctive shape alone is not enough to protect it from being copied.
German toymaker Simba Toys launched a legal challenge in 2006.
In 2014, a lower EU court ruled in favour of the cube’s trademark rights.
But two years later the top court said the law prevents a company getting a “monopoly on technical solutions or functional characteristics of a product”.
Speaking in 2016, David Kremer, president of Rubik’s Brand, said: “We are baffled that the court finds functionality or a technical solution implicit in the trademark.”
More than 400 million Rubik’s Cubes, invented by Erno Rubik in Budapest in 1974, have been sold around the world.
The cube is made of movable pieces with coloured faces which twist without falling apart. The aim is to make each side a uniform colour.
Shapes, like logos and brand names, can be protected by a trademark.
Simba argues the cube’s rotating capability ought to be protected by a patent rather than a trademark. A patent runs out while a trademark exists in perpetuity.
Seven Town’s founder Tom Kremer is credited with popularising the puzzle.
(c) Sky News 2019: Rubik’s Cube firm left puzzled after losing EU trademark
