For almost a year, non-traditional trademarks can be filed at the European trademark authorities. For example holograms, patterns, film-clips and multimedia marks. Last year our intern Romy has conducted research on this and wrote her bachelor’s thesis on the subject. Her thesis shows that, in addition to pattern marks, film-clips with sound and video are particularly popular. However, scent marks are not yet available. The reason for this is (put shortly) that an odour can’t be described and displayed specifically enough. The European Court has decided in a similar case that only a description in words and a chemical formula would be insufficient. It will therefore take some time before scent marks are accepted in the EU. However, for patterns, movie-clips etc. the doors are wide open.
