TRADEMARK | The EU General Court on the registrability of the “I♥” sign

On 9 July 2025, the General Court of the European Union (the GC) delivered its judgments in cases T-304/24, T-305/24 and T-306/24, dismissing the German company Sprd.net’s actions against the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). In 2022, Sprd.net’s had applied to the EUIPO for the registration of three position trademarks consisting of a sign composed of the capital letter “I” and a red heart, placed on different parts of clothing items (left side of the chest, inside label, and back of the neck). The EUIPO had rejected the applications on the ground that the applied sign lacked distinctive character, being immediately perceived as the expression “I love” and therefore incapable of distinguishing the goods of one undertaking from those of others. The GC upheld the EUIPO’s reasoning, finding that the specific positioning of the figurative sign  on clothing items like t-shirts was not sufficient to confer distinctiveness on this sign.

Newsletter n. 110 – August/September 2025