Italian Supreme Court on Secondary Meaning: When a Registered Generic Sign can Become a Trademark
On 19 April 2016, the Italian Supreme Court passed on secondary meaning, overruling two sets of proceedings of the courts of merits which declared the invalidity of a trademark.
The case arose some debate among professionals since the trademark declared invalid was registered by a very well-known bathroom tissue producer which invested substantial efforts for decades to ensure that its registered generic sign (“Rotoloni” which literally means big toilet roll) had acquired distinctiveness by way of secondary meaning.
As a result of its efforts, the defendant offered a public opinion survey evidencing that 51% of interviewed consumers were recognizing the generic sign at issue as distinctive of products coming from a specific company. Read More