This saga of dumb began nearly a decade ago, in 2016, when a grocer named “Iceland Foods,” that was somehow granted an EU trademark for “Iceland,” began bullying other EU businesses using that word over supposed trademark infringement. Iceland, the country, caught wind of all of this when the company had the stones to oppose a trademark application for the term initiated by the country of Iceland and decided to bully back, challenging ownership of the trademark. Not surprisingly, Iceland won and the trademark was rescinded. Rather than take a sane ruling on this, Iceland Foods appealed the decision to the Grand Board of the EUIPO, which affirmed the previous decision.
That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. The grocer took this all the way to the General Court of the European Union to try to once again get its trademark, the name of a fucking nation, back. Well, that too has now failed, with the General Court affirming yet again in favor of Iceland.
The court dismissed the company’s attempt to overturn a decision by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which had previously invalidated its exclusive claim to the name ‘Iceland’.
The outcome means that Icelandic businesses operating within the EU are free to use their country’s name to market their products and services—something the supermarket chain had attempted to restrict.
I remain completely flummoxed as to how this story has managed to span a decade of time. This is a trademark that obviously never should have been granted. Geographic trademarks are generally supposed to have a high hurdle for approval to begin with, and typically with a very narrow scope, nevermind the name of a country in Europe that is part of the European Economic Area (EEA). From a purely common sense standpoint, it should be obvious that nobody should want the name of a country to be trademarked throughout the continent with which it is associated. That does nothing for the public, who’s benefit is supposed to be the main focus of trademark laws.
But at least it’s over… probably.
Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir welcomed the verdict: “It is of paramount importance for our companies to be able to refer to the origin, to the purity and to our unique position on the international stage. There is value in the name of the country and we will continue to protect these interests for Iceland.”
Iceland Foods Ltd. now has two months to lodge an appeal.
I want to say there’s no way Iceland Foods will appeal this decision too, but that would be too optimistic for my tastes.