“Serious Outrage”
“The average consumer in the European Union will perceive the sign as referring to the notorious motorcycle gang ‘Satudarah’, a (now banned) motorcycle club founded in 1990 in the Netherlands and associated with violence, drug trafficking, illegal arms trade, and other criminal activities,” according to the EUIPO. Commercial exploitation of a brand like Satudarah would, according to the EUIPO, provoke “serious outrage” among consumers and be considered “unacceptable.”
Escobars and Jihadi
This outcome was somewhat predictable. They simply should have looked at trademarks previously rejected for evoking thoughts of banned criminal organizations or individuals. For example, trademarks like Escobars (for cola and spirits), The Jihadi (for games), and SS (for clothing and golf gloves) were all denied trademark registration because they were contrary to public order. A criminal group like Satudarah fits into this same category.
More complicated
But sometimes, things are a bit more complicated for trademark holders. I can well imagine that the applicant for the logo E.T.A. Everyday Travel Adventure didn’t consider that ETA is also the abbreviation of the name of the Basque terrorist group that held Spain in fear with attacks in the early 2000s. Maybe they were just thinking of Estimated Time of Arrival? Nevertheless, the trademark E.T.A. Everyday Travel Adventure was rejected by the EUIPO due to being contrary to public order.
French terrorists
A Danish entrepreneur had an even tougher time with his clothing brand OAS. OAS sounds like a perfectly fine brand name, if you ask me. However, OAS was also rejected by the EUIPO for violating public order. But who even remembers that OAS was the name of a notorious French terrorist group in the 1960s, the Secret Army Organisation? I had never heard of them either.
Bas Kist
Banner photo: Jacob Hahury, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
