On the Distinctiveness of QR Code Symbols for the Purposes of Trademark Law

• Authors: Osman Bugra Beydogan

Title variants

PL

O zdolności odróżniającej symboli kodów QR w prawie znaków towarowych

Abstracts

PL

Nowa, bezkontaktowa rzeczywistość, podyktowana globalną pandemią, ponownie wprowadziła kody QR, o niemal trzydziestoletniej historii, jako nowy standard przekazywania informacji. Są one teraz nie tylko wszechobecne w codziennym życiu ludzi, lecz także nierozerwalnie związane z obrotem społecznym, handlowym i urzędowym. Ostatnio podejmuje się wiele technicznych i artystycznych starań, aby owe zazwyczaj abstrakcyjne i nieatrakcyjne zbiory biało-czarnych kwadratów bardziej przyciągały wzrok. Uczynienie z symboli kodu czegoś, co przyciąga uwagę, zapewniając tym samym głębszą interakcję z klientem, jest pożądane z handlowego punktu widzenia. Co ciekawe, indywidualnie zaprojektowane kody QR, często związane z wizerunkami marek i systemami handlowej identyfikacji, zbliżają się w swej istocie do sfery prawa znaków towarowych. Jednakże wszechobecność i technicznie niezbędne standardy formatu znaków QR dążą w kierunku przeciwnym do podstawowej przesłanki znaków towarowych, czyli zdolności odróżniającej. Celem artykułu jest udzielenie odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy oznaczenia składające się z symboli QR lub je zawierające mogą spełniać wymóg dotyczący zdolności odróżniającej przewidziany w prawie Unii Europejskiej. Ze względu na brak orzecznictwa dotyczącego tej kwestii w opracowaniu najpierw omówiono kryteria sprawdzania zdolności odróżniającej w świetle unijnego prawa znaków towarowych oraz związane z nimi interpretacje orzecznicze. Następnie zwrócono uwagę na zastosowanie tych kryteriów do znaków składających się z symboli QR lub je zawierających. W tym ostatnim zakresie ograniczone wskazówki orzecznicze z państw członkowskich i praktyki EUIPO ujęte zostały w perspektywie prawa materialnego i uzupełnione jego wymogami. W artykule potwierdzono, że nie istnieje uniwersalna formuła rozstrzygnięcia rozpatrywanej kwestii oraz że symbole QR nie powinny być wykluczane jako znaki towarowe tylko dlatego, że są zasadniczo znormalizowane.

EN

The contactless new normal dictated by the global pandemic has re-introduced the nearly three-decade-old QR codes as a new standard of conveyance of information. Not only are they now ubiquitous to the general public but also inseparable to social, commercial and bureaucratic life. Recent history has been witnessing plenty of technical and artistic effort to make these normally abstract and unattractive clusters of dark and light quadratic shapes more eye-catching. In commercial terms, this is particularly motivated by the aim of rendering the code symbols a point of attraction as such, thus securing a more engaging customer interaction. Customized QR codes, having often been associated with brand images and commercial identities, are observed to come closer to the proximity of trademark law. However, the ubiquity and the technically necessary format standards of QR symbols tend to root against the primary premise of the trademarks: distinctiveness. This article seeks to answer whether the signs consisting of or incorporating QR symbols could fulfill the distinctiveness requirement within the framework of the EU law. Given the lack of jurisprudential apprehension of the question at hand, the article, first, sets about reasoning a distinctiveness test on the face of the EU trademark law and that of the relatable jurisprudential interpretations. Secondly, it goes on to administer this test on the signs that consist of or incorporate QR symbols. In the latter respect, limited jurisprudential hints from the Member States and the EUIPO practices shall be put in perspective and compounded with the imperatives of substantive law. The article, consequently substantiates that there is no one-fits-all formula to the question at hand and that QR symbols shall not be excluded as trademarks merely because they are essentially standardized.

Keywords

EN

standard of conveyance of information; QR codes; trademark; distinctiveness

PL

standard przekazywania informacji; kody QR; znak towarowy; zdolność odróżniająca

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: Studia Iuridica Lublinensia
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 29-57

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Osman Bugra Beydogan

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Identifiers

DOI

10.17951/sil.2022.31.4.29-57

Biblioteka Nauki

31348161