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Law Cases
Intellectual Property Law Cases
Trademarks 1 Cases

Shield Mark BV v Joost Kist [2003] Case C-283/01

Country:
United Kingdom
By Oxbridge Law Team
Fur Elise
Cock Crowing

  • Claimant sought to register the first nine notes of ‘Fur Elise’, as well as the sound of a cock crowing.

  • Claimant used musical notation, onomatopoeic representation (‘kukelekuuuu’), and a verbal description (‘the crowing of a cock’).

  • Held:

Fur Elise

  • No need for immediate intelligibility

    • Suffices that intelligibility is ‘easy’

  • Thus fact that not everyone can read music does not stop a stave being sufficient graphical representation

Cock Crowing

  • Verbal description of sounds does not suffice

    1. Is lack of consistency between onomatopoeia and sound, and thus not precise

    2. Different people have different perceptions of onomatopoeia, and thus not objective

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