Unilever loses out in Poland over bottle mark
22 February 2011
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Managing Intellectual Property
On Monday the Polish Patent Office ruled that Unilever had not produced sufficient evidence to prove the use of its 3D trade mark for a bottle with a bent neck - as used on Domestos disinfectant.
This was despite Unilever producing a consumer survey from 2009, evidence of advertising across Europe and recent decisions in France and Germany that supported its registration. The Office ruled that Unilever had not shown enough evidence of uninterrupted use of the mark for the required five years - the mark was registered in 2002.
At the same time, Poland's Supreme Administrative Court sided with the Polish company in the case, Zaklad Produkcj Opakowan Rosinski, as regards whether Rosinski's industrial design should be invalidated given the Unilever mark.
The design was originally rejected by the Patent Office, which was backed up by the Voivodeship Administrative Court on Appeal. But the Supreme Court disagreed and handed the case back to the Patent Office to reconsider.