L'Oreal case hones law for single letter trademarks

The General Court of the European Union has just issued another decision in a trademarks conflict by further specifying the scope of protection of single letter trademarks. The judgment is available online here. This article will introduce the facts of the case, summarise and analyse the court’s decision, and provide an outlook.

Facts of the case

The company L’Oréal applied for the following figurative trademark for hair cosmetics in class 3 (see figure 1).

Figure 1: L’Oréal’s applied for mark.