Electronic giant Apple has become the first company in Europe to trademark the layout of its iconic stores. The ruling is an extension of an intellectual property claim it secured in the United States back in 2010.
Apple – which has 37 stores in the UK, and others throughout France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands — has been attempting to extend the trademarkon this side of the Atlantic. Its request was rejected last year by the German Federal Patent Office on the grounds that consumers “would not see the retail space in which Apple devices were sold as an indication of the commercial origin of the devices”.
The California-headquartered company maintained that the design of its flagship stores could be represented by a three-dimensional trademark and appealed the decision at the country’s Federal Patents Court, which then referred the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
In determining the iPhone maker’s claim that the design and layout of its global store network was so unique that it set it apart from any competitor, the court took its guidance from an EC trademarks directive. To prove that its outlets represented a trademark, Apple needed to fulfil three criteria.
After granting the company’s trademark appeal, the panel of judges stated: “The Court concludes that the representation of the layout of a retail store, by a design alone, without indicating the size or the proportions, may be registered as a trade mark for services.”
The Court of Justice did set conditions on its ruling. Among other things, it pointed to a requirement that the goods and services offered in any Apple outlet must be absolutely distinguishable from those of other, competing businesses.
Apple opened its first US store in back in 2001. It took another three years before the company launched its first European premises in London and since then it has installed its signature wooden tables and glass fronted side displays across its entire 425 store global network.
The tech giant’s new retail executive, former Burberry boss Angela Ahrendts, is currently overseeing the opening of a new store in Edinburgh’s Princes Street. By tradition Apple refuses to divulge pre-launch details of its outlets, but its first store in the Scottish capital is set to be one of its biggest in Britain.
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