Iceland Foods has lost its latest appeal in its ongoing legal saga with the Icelandic government over the trademark of the word Iceland.
This week, the General Court of The European union denied an appeal lodged by the supermarket in October 2024, against the decision of the EU Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) in December 2022 that upheld a previous ruling to strip the supermarket of its EU trademark protection for the word ‘Iceland’.
The ruling doesn’t affect Iceland’s ability to sell into the bloc, it just stymies its efforts to prevent other organisations from using the phrase ‘Iceland’ to market products sold in the EU.
Iceland is considering the ruling and its next steps, The Grocer understands. It has one more route of appeal remaining, via the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The latest appeal hinged on geographical significance, said Lee Curtis, partner and chartered trademark attorney at IP law firm HGF. Legal precedent has been to deny trademark registrations on terms that designate a place known for the manufacture or production of goods, he highlighted.
“In the Iceland case there seemed to be long argument over what could or could not be produced or processed in Iceland. The General Court held even goods such as coffee could at the very least be processed in Iceland, so for Iceland Foods, the term Iceland simply fell on the wrong side of the line.
“In essence what the Court is saying is that given that Iceland is a place name, it should be free for all to use for the goods and services concerned in the EU, mostly food products and related retail services,” Curtis added.
Why Iceland continues to ‘fight’ for its brand name
It closes the third round of a bizarre nearly nine-year legal spat between Iceland, and its de facto former owner, the Icelandic government, which briefly effectively owned the supermarket following its bail out of the banks supporting Baugur Group after the financial crisis in 2008.
The grocer first secured the EU trademark for the word Iceland in 2014. However, a consortium of Icelandic organisations who were frustrated by the supermarket’s attempt to prevent the country’s trade organisation – Íslandsstofa – from using the phrase ‘Inspired by Iceland’ lodged an appeal in 2016, leading the supermarket to be stripped of the trademark. Iceland’s subsequant appeals have progressed through mutiple levels of the EU justice system since.
During an interview with The Grocer in March 2025 Iceland co-owner and CEO Tarsem Dhaliwal explained the supermarket’s motivations for pursuing the case.
“We were concerned that our trademark in the UK is completely protected, so nobody can open Iceland stores, but as we were exporting to other countries, we didn’t want people effectively using the Iceland name to sell products which weren’t coming from us.”
The supermarket was “quite happy” for Icelandic products to be sold, Dhaliwal said, however he claimed that the country sought to apply the trademark to products like bananas.
“We were thinking, but you don’t grow bananas in Iceland, so why would you want Iceland bananas? So look, reality is we’re still fighting it. We’ll come to a compromise, yes it is their name. We’re just utilizing it, but we’ll come to an agreement whereby it doesn’t impose on what we’re trying to do,” he told The Grocer.
“We’ll get there. It’s cost us a lot of money, but it’s important to fight for things that you believe in,” Dhaliwal added.
The supermarket declined to comment on the latest appeal.
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