Press Release: Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-205/13. Hauck GmbH & Co. KG v Stokke A/S. Stokke Nederland BV, Peter Opsvik and Peter Opsvik A/S

Advocate General Maciej Szpunar considers that EU law precludes registration as trade marks of shapes which result from the functionality of the goods and shapes whose aesthetic characteristics determine the attractiveness of the goods concerned.

Reserving the benefit of such shapes to a single operator amounts to allowing that operator to obtain an unfair advantage on the market, thereby undermining the objective of trade mark protection.