An EU-court has ruled that the Batman logo is deserving of an EU trademark that it has held for more than two decades, despite a challenge from an Italian clothing retailer. The trademark was registered by Warner Bros Discovery's DC Comics.
According to Reuters, Commerciale Italiana Srl launched its case in 2019, and had asked the EU Patent Office - the EUIPO - “to annul the trademark for clothing and carnival items”. It argued that the Batman logo lacked a distinctive character. However, the EU’s second-top court, the Luxembourg-based General Court, has backed the patent office in its dismissal of the Italian Company’s case and subsequent appeal.
"The evidence submitted to the General Court is not sufficient to show that the EU trade mark representing a bat in an oval surround was devoid of distinctive character on the date of filing of the application for registration," the Court ruled. "For the relevant public, that distinctiveness makes it possible to associate, according to EUIPO, the goods covered by the trade mark with DC Comics and to distinguish them from those of other undertakings."
