Goldstar, owner of the Valleverde brand, has won yet another victory against Birkenstock, which wanted to register the typical sole with intertwined curved lines as its own trademark.
After positive rulings from various courts in Italy, France, Benelux and Germany, as well as the European Court of Justice, the ruling represents yet another victory in favor of Goldstar against the Birkenstock group.
The German Federal Patent Court had already dismissed Birkenstock’s appeal against the decision of the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) on December 11, 2017, an appeal in which the GPTO had come to the conclusion to cancel Birkenstock’s German position mark on the basis of lack of distinctiveness under Sec. 8 Sec. 2 No. 1 of the German Trademark Law.
The appeal had been dismissed by the German Federal Patent Court because the legal issues raised in the proceedings had already been clarified by the European Court of Justice. However, the Court’s decision had been further appealed by Birkenstock, but the appeal was dismissed. “A legal battle that has been going on for more than seven years now,” reads the note released by the well-known footwear company from Rimini, Italy, “and which has seen the small Italian group see its rights always satisfied so far”.
The victory is all the more significant when one considers that Birkenstock is a 1.24 million colossus.