Louboutin case goes before European Court of Justice
23/06/2017
In 2013, a Dutch court ruled that Van Haren must stop manufacturing and selling blue and black high-heeled shoes with red soles. The case came down to whether a trademark can consist of a colour in combination with shape (in this case the red sole on a high-heeled shoe). The court ruled in favour of Louboutin, with the subsequent appeal process now reaching the ECJ.
In his preliminary comments on the case, Maciej Szpunar, an advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), asked whether a trademarked ‘shape’ is limited to the “three-dimensional properties of the goods” (e.g. contours, measurements and volume” or if it should include “other properties”, such as their colour.
Mr Szpunar concluded: “I consider that it is necessary … to take into account the colour as well as the other aspects of the goods in question. The (trade)mark should therefore be equated with one consisting of the shape of the goods and seeking protection for a colour in relation to that shape, rather than one consisting of a colour per se.”
A final ruling on the case is still to come, but Mr Szpunar’s comments could pave the way for Louboutin’s red-soled high-heeled shoes to be protected under a European Trademark Directive.
Image: European Court of Justice
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