Recently, VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES received an utterly favorable judgement from the EU General Court (EGC) in an action brought against the EUIPO Second Board of Appeal (Case T-70/20). Aleksandar Bijelić from VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES successfully represented the creators and the owners of a concept museum named MUSEUM OF ILLUSIONS. Over the past decade, Croatia as a popular tourist destination and the capital Zagreb in particular encountered an exceptional growth in the number of modern museums of all types. The Croatian MUSEUM OF ILLUSIONS specifically is not the first museum of this kind in the world, but in a relatively short period, it turned into the leading museum of this type globally, through a worldwide network of museums and with a constant growth.
In a contentious procedure in the first and second instance involving two museums, the standpoint of the EUIPO essentially was that the phrase MUSEUM OF ILLUSIONS had distinctive character in the EU. For this reason, the case was brought before the EU General Court. The procedure before the General Court was a success for the client and resulted in the annulment of the EUIPO Second Board of Appeal decision. The EGC addressed a variety of legal and factual aspects and most importantly determined the lack of distinctiveness of the phrase MUSEUM OF ILLUSIONS.
The case is expected to represent a point of reference for future cases involving figurative signs containing generic, descriptive and/or non-distinctive phrases and verbal elements in general, especially when the verbal element in the conflicting signs is identical. The case is also expected to constitute case law for all trademarks referring to museums and museum services as an expanding type of tourist services.
This is the second landmark case in which VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES represented clients before the EGC. In 2020, VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES successfully represented the Republic of Croatia as an intervening party before the EGC in a high-profile dispute involving legal action of the Republic of Slovenia against the European Commission, in relation to the designation of origin of the wine variety “teran”. It was a first time an attorney from Croatia (VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES’ own Ivan Ćuk) has argued in a hearing before the EGC. VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES representation resulted in a judgment in favor of the European Commission and the Republic of Croatia.