When it pays to wear belt and suspenders

peeterpaul@motskula.net (Peeter P. Mõtsküla) — Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hungary has given birth to several great inventors. Ernő Rubik invented — and patented — his Magic Cube in 1975. In 2006, Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi came up with a weird object which had one stable and one unstable point of equilibrium and called it a “Gömböc”.

Photo: public domain

Hungarian IP lawyers have also been inventive. After Rubik’s patent expired, they actually managed to re-protect the cube as a three-dimensional EU trademark in 1999. The mark was contested in 2006 on the grounds that the shape was essential to the cube’s function; after 13 years of legal battles the CJEU decided in October 2019 (case T‑601/17) that if the shape of a thing is essential to its function, it cannot be protected as a 3D trademark.

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When it pays to wear belt *and* suspenders

When it pays to wear belt and suspenders