The European Court of first instance (EuG) dismisses the case of the German toy manufacturer Simba toys in its judgment of November 25, 2014.

Simba toys had requested a declaration of invalidity with the OHIM (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market) against the three-dimensional community trademark registered in 1999, which protects the form of the cube “Rubik’s Cube” for three-dimensional puzzles, with the indication of an existing technical solution within the rotatability of the “Rubik’s Cube”. The declaration of invalid validity was rejected by the OHIM.

Simba toys subsequently took action with the European Court of first instance. The court asserted that the representation of the cube does not provide evidence for the technical solution and the essential characteristics result on the one hand from the cube itself and on the other hand from the lattice structure. Further, the court refers to the fact that the distribution monopoly of the owner is only restricted to three-dimensional puzzles in form of a cube and all other three-dimensional puzzles are not affected thereof. Thereby, the present trademark substantially differs from the representation of other three-dimensional puzzles available on the market.