Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> IPKat

Intellectual Property Law

: IPKat

Jaguar implicated in ECJ mystery

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

Another mystery intellectual property case has caught the IPKat's attention: it's Case C-238/09, Handelsmaatschappij J. van Hilst and Others v The Jaguar Collection Limited and Others, a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling. The reference was made by the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (the Dutch Supreme Court) on 1 July 2009 but sadly for all IP enthusiasts,

"By order of 20 July 2009 the case was removed from the Register of the Court of Justice".

Assuming that it wasn't removed simply because the language of the case was Dutch, there must have been more to it - but what? The IPKat is fond of Jaguars, since they are beautiful cats with lovely coats, but he's never heard of anyone collecting them. And what's the IP issue? Was some mean-minded soul trying to register the pattern of the Jaguar's coat as a design? Or was this a cunningly-disguised attempt to register the big cat as a three-dimensional trade mark?

Full post as published by IPKat on December 10, 2009 (boomark / email).