Oatly milks vegan trademark success at General Court
21-01-2021
27-03-2018
The Second Chamber of the EU General Court yesterday, January 20, upheld a trademark appeal brought by vegan food brand Oatly, overturning an earlier decision by the European Union Intellection Property Office (EUIPO).
In 2019, Oatly applied to register ‘It’s Like Milk But Made For Humans’ as a trademark in the EU. Oatly wanted the mark to cover a range of foodstuff products in classes 18, 25, 29, 30, and 32.
According to the Swedish company’s website, Oatly uses a patented enzyme technology to mirror nature’s own processes and turn oats into nutritional liquid food. Oatly seeks to promote alternative eating habits as part of the fight against climate change.
Inventa International
Whenever reference is made to a work of art named “The Thinker” in Angola, most people will think of the statuette “The Chokwe Thinker” (“O Pensador”).
The history of “O Pensador”, also known as “Samanhonga” or “Kuku”, goes back to 1932, when the Swiss painter and ethnologist Théodore Delachaux found the statuette in a “divination basket” (a basket containing many small objects used for the diviner to made prophecies at request of his clients) during an expedition to Angola. It is a wooden figurine, representing an elder, woman or man, in a position of deep meditation.
The gracious and inspiring position of the elder encouraged Delachaux, influenced by August Rodin’s sculpture “Le Penseur”, to name it “The Thinker”.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has dismissed the claim of a Cypriot producers' organisation who challenged the trademark validation of Bulgarian halloumi-sounding products arguing that they could deceive consumers.