Egg-citing Trademark Dispute: Verpoorten vs. Nordik Over Advocaats

Enjoying the Easter weather, I would like to introduce you to a dispute relating to eggs and, more specifically, to the advocaat made from them, i.e. an alcoholic beverage made from eggs, sugar and brandy.🐇🐣🥚🥃

What does this have to do with trade marks?™️

Verpoorten – a German producer of advocaat – registered its trade mark in Germany already in 1966 in the form of ‘Ei, Ei, Ei – VERPOORTEN’, and then a few years later registered the trade mark ‘Eieiei’ ™️🥚

However, a competitor in the German market – Nordik, launched a pack of five flavoured advocaats under the slogan ‘Ei, Ei, Ei, Ei, Ei’ in an attempt to register it as a trade mark in 2020. 🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚™️

The German Intellectual Property Office refused the registration, indicating that the mark was descriptive.🇩🇪💡

The high similarity of these trade marks also led to a dispute between Nordik and Verpoorten.™️🤺🥷🏻