Apple Now Allowed to Trademark Apple Store Layout in Europe

Apple is now allowed to register the layout of its retail stores as a trademark in Europe following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, reports The Wall Street Journal.

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The EU's top court said Thursday that Apple's flagship stores fulfilled the three criteria for a trade mark: they constitute a sign; they can be represented in a graphic; and they can distinguish the goods or services sold by one company from those of another

The company was originally awarded a trademark for its store design in the U.S. last year, and has been actively trying to extend it to the rest of the world ever since. Prior to the ruling, Germany's patent office ruled that the particular layout of a shop cannot be qualified as a trademark, which Apple then challenged.

Currently, Apple has a total of 425 retail stores worldwide. 89 of those retail locations are spread out across Europe, and are found in countries including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

Tag: wsj.com

Top Rated Comments

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Steve121178

69 months ago

Layouts like that have been going on for decades! Our desks at school were set out in the same format with lights above them and this was 20 years ago, ha!

If Apple get some kind of protection for this, then, well, what the hell is the world coming to?

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This is great news. Everyone knows Apple has created a unique shopping experience that delights all consumers, and nobody should be allowed to shamelessly copy it.

No one should be allowed to arrange benches in a store in a particular way?

Nonsense.

Rating: 8 Votes

Xenc

69 months ago

After the patent wars there was the furniture war...

Rating: 7 Votes

mvmanolov

69 months ago

A comment for the editors :)

Just a small correction to this piece.. it is no longer (and hasn't beed for a couple of years now - since the Lisbon Treaty in December of 2009) called the "European Court of Justice"! (ECJ) the name changed to the "Court of Justice" or the "Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) referring to the combined multi-level judiciary (iow including the "Court of First Instance)... not that it matters much for this piece but only in the interest journalistic accuracy :)

Rating: 4 Votes

ArtOfWarfare

69 months ago

At first I was with the crowd that says this is insane, but as I thought about it more, it occured to me that I can draw out the layouts for a few different stores and recognize them from their layouts.

Draw Target's floor plan. Draw Walmart's. Draw Radio Shack's. Draw GameStop's. Draw Best Buy's. Draw Apple's. And so on.

They're each chains that follow the same general floor plan each time, and you can tell one from another just by looking at their floor plans.

Even the grocery store chains in my area each have different layouts. Trader Joes goes with those diagonal aisles... I can't think of other grocery store chains in the area that actually expand beyond 50 miles from here so they wouldn't make for very good comparisons on these forums as most of you wouldn't know what I was talking about...

Rating: 4 Votes

Laird Knox

69 months ago

This is great news. Everyone knows Apple has created a unique shopping experience that delights all consumers, and nobody should be allowed to shamelessly copy it.

I would have to disagree with the highlighted part. When you go into a busy store to buy something there is no point of sale, no line. You have to corner a busy associate and hope that they aren't giving a half hour demo. Even just picking up something you paid for online and have been emailed that it is ready for delivery can be a painful experience.

The self pay has helped a lot but it is still a madhouse. This is with three stores along a five mile stretch of the same road.

Rating: 3 Votes

Mums

69 months ago

If Apple get some kind of protection for this, then, well, what the hell is the world coming to?

I pretty much agree. Nobody should be able to trademark minimalism - that's part of the point of minimalism.

Rating: 3 Votes

Beautyspin

69 months ago

There must be a Billion stores out there. Imagine all of them trademarking their layouts. Any new company that is opening a store will not be able to do that if it has to search and make sure it is not infringing on any of those prior layouts. Apple is really really in a very big RDF and it looks like it has a big sense of entitlement. It looks like it has not learnt anything even after the latent losses in the patent courts. It needs a kick in the pants by similarly loosing in the trademark case also..

Rating: 3 Votes

Phil A.

69 months ago

I think this is perfectly valid - Apple's stores are iconic and if someone blindfolded you and put you in one, you'd know as soon as the blindfold was removed that it was an apple store, even if there were nothing on display and no apple logos visible. IMO, this is perfectly acceptable as intellectual property.

Both O2 and PC World in the UK have tried to copy Apple's layout to a greater or lesser extent so I guess this will reign that in.

Rating: 3 Votes

FieldingMellish

69 months ago

Such bull crap. We'll soon be confronted with an iPad bearing legalize to agree to when entering a store or taking pics in it.

Rating: 3 Votes