\n<\/p>\n
Ikea has won the right to take legal action against a Belgian far-right political party that parodied the Swedish flatpack furniture firm\u2019s branding in its anti-immigration campaign.<\/p>\n
In a ruling on Tuesday, Europe\u2019s highest court said that Ikea had the right to oppose the use of its trademarks and distinctive graphics by Vlaams Belang, a rightwing Eurosceptic political party that advocates for an independent Flemish state.<\/p>\n
The court found that Vlaams Belang\u2019s use of Ikea\u2019s trademarks to illustrate its policy on asylum and immigration could \u201ccause significant detriment to the repute\u201d of the company.<\/p>\n
The party, which has called for a near total stop to immigration and limitations on the building of mosques, had used Ikea\u2019s branding in political material published in 2022.<\/p>\n
One image featured characters modelled on the cartoon people used in Ikea instructions, one carrying a flag featuring a lion \u2013 the symbol of Flanders \u2013 and another holding a shield in Ikea\u2019s distinctive blue and yellow livery.<\/p>\n
The image was titled \u201cIkea plan\u201d with the subtitle \u201cImmigration really can be different.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Ikea issued proceedings against Vlaams Belang, the party argued that its freedom of expression should override the Swedish company\u2019s rights over its brand.<\/p>\n
But the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Tuesday that Ikea could proceed with legal action against Vrijheidsfonds, the association behind the party.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the court said \u201cit does not appear that the use of the Ikea trademarks for the sole purpose of taking advantage of their reputation to reinforce a political message and increase its dissemination, takes precedence over the rights and interests of the proprietor of those trademarks.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, it said a final decision on the dispute could only be made in subsequent legal proceedings in a Belgian court.<\/p>\n
Pauline Piernez, a trademark and design associate at Marks & Clerk, an intellectual property law firm, said: \u201cWhile the CJEU rightly confirms that political parody is not prohibited, it also makes clear that freedom of expression is not a blank cheque to appropriate the identity of a famous brand simply to amplify a message.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotionFree newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n
Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, the court found that the use of the Ikea trademarks was liable to damage their reputation and was primarily intended to take advantage of their notoriety in order to increase the reach of a political message entirely unrelated to Ikea itself.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision should be welcomed as an important safeguard for the system of protection afforded to reputed trademarks.|<\/p>\n \u201cInter Ikea fully believes in \u2013 and deeply respects \u2013 freedom of expression,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cAt the same time, it cannot accept the use of the Ikea trademarks in ways that damage their reputation or distinctive character, particularly when such use serves no other purpose than to free-ride on the reputation of the Ikea brand.\u201d<\/p>\n \u200bVlaams Belang \u200bsaid its campaign association had taken note of the judgment and that it \u201cwill thoroughly study its scope in the context of the further legal proceedings\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ikea has won the right to take legal action against a Belgian far-right political party that parodied the Swedish flatpack furniture firm\u2019s branding in its anti-immigration campaign. In a ruling on Tuesday, Europe\u2019s highest court said that Ikea had the right to oppose the use of its trademarks and distinctive graphics by Vlaams Belang, a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[919,6161,8305,22759,3164,324,2651,1975],"class_list":{"0":"post-52169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-belgian","10":"tag-farright","11":"tag-ikea","12":"tag-launch","13":"tag-legal","14":"tag-party","15":"tag-wins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}