TRADEMARK | The General Court of the EU on the invalidity of Tetra Pak’s 3D trademark

On 3 June 2026, the General Court (GC) of the EU issued its judgment in Case T-104/25 (Lami Packaging (Kunshan) v EUIPO – Tetra Laval Holdings & Finance), annulling the decision of the Board of Appeal (BoA) of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and declaring invalid a 3D EU trademark depicting Tetra Pak’s iconic octagonal packaging carton, registered in 2000 for packaging containers and packaging material. The invalidity application was based on Article 7(1)(e)(ii) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of 14 June 2017 on the European Union trademark (EUTMR), which excludes from registration signs consisting exclusively of a shape necessary to obtain a technical result. The GC disagreed with the BoA’s finding that the technical functions of the essential characteristics of the shape related only to the manufacturing process and had no bearing on the function of the product. According to the GC, optimising the container’s capacity and reducing its weight constitute technical results relevant to the targeted public and downstream end-users. The GC also clarified that Article 7(1)(e)(ii) EUTMR does not require an innovative technical result and that the fact that a functional element also has aesthetic characteristics is irrelevant.

Newsletter n. 120 – July 2026