‘Pablo Escobar’ can’t be registered as EU trademark, court rules – POLITICO

Escobar, a narco-terrorist who was killed in a shootout in 1993, was the chief of the notorious Medellín Cartel and over a long time of drug-trafficking grew to become one of many world’s main cocaine barons.

Wednesday’s courtroom resolution got here after EUIPO beforehand refused to just accept the registration as Escobar’s title, and what the European public associates with it, contradicted EU values.

“EUIPO rejected the applying for registration on the bottom that the mark was opposite to public coverage and to accepted rules of morality,” a press launch from the Court docket of Justice of the European Union mentioned Wednesday, including that EUIPO had relied on the notion of the Spanish public.

In accordance with the courtroom, “affordable Spaniards, with common sensitivity and tolerance thresholds” who shared European values “would affiliate the title of Pablo Escobar with drug trafficking and narco-terrorism and with the crimes and struggling ensuing therefrom.”

In its authentic resolution in February 2023, EUIPO additionally referenced a ruling through which the registration of a restaurant chain referred to as “La Mafia se sienta a la Mesa” (“The Mafia sits on the desk”) was refused in 2018 as a result of it might be perceived as immoral by the typical citizen.

The Normal Court docket added that, “Pablo Escobar’s basic proper to the presumption of innocence has not been infringed as a result of, despite the fact that he was by no means criminally convicted, he’s publicly perceived in Spain as a logo of organised crime accountable for quite a few crimes.”