In a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice ruled that the layout of Apple’s retail stores may be registered as a trademark. Retail Week looks at the implications.

Why are we talking about this now?

Last week the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the layout of Apple’s retail stores may, subject to certain conditions, be registered as a trade mark.

The ECJ said: “A representation that, such as the one in the present case, depicts the layout of a retail store by means of an integral collection of lines, curves and shapes, may constitute a trademark provided that it is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings.”

The decision followed a legal appeal by Apple after the German Patent and Trade Mark Office rejected its trademark application. Apple appealed and the German Federal Patent Court asked the ECJ for guidance.

The ruling means that store formats are now capable of being registered in the European Union. The overall judgement on the Apple case will be decided by the German Federal Patent Court.

What is Apple attempting to trademark?

By attempting to register the layout of its stores in the European Union as a trademark, Apple is in practice seeking to protect the format of its stores, such as how the tables are arranged and positioned in the shops.

The retailer successfully registered its store layout as a trademark in the US in 2010.

What are the implications for retailers?

The decision could be far reaching not just for Apple, but for all retailers, argues Lee Curtis, partner and trade mark attorney at the law firm HGF.  

“Other retailers could apply to register the look of their retail formats as trademarks and effectively attempt to monopolise and stop other retailers using the same or similar style of retail format,” he says.

“There is a question mark, however, over how wide such registrations would be and the strength of protection. By definition to warrant registration, retail formats will have to be very precise in definition. However, this potentially narrows the scope of protection, as it very unlikely another retailer would use the identical format.”

What else do retailers trademark?

As mentioned, Apple has already successfully registered its store layout in the US. Retailers can trademark anything from company names to logos. Another unusual case was Lush, which registered the name of Amazon UK boss Christopher North as a trademark for toilet products following the cosmetics retailer’s High Court infringement battle with the online giant.