sutton044

Nusret Gökçe, nicknamed Salt Bae (the applicant), is a Turkish chef who owns ‘Nusr-Et’, a chain of steak houses. His art of cooking and preparing meat has become somewhat of an internet sensation [see here and here for some salty videos]. Salt Bae became widely known in 2017 for the way he ‘elegantly’ cuts meat and sprinkles salt. In particular, his fame comes from a viral video, ‘Ottoman Steak’, posted in January 2017 on his Twitter account. It has been viewed 10 million times on Instagram. After that Gökçe was dubbed ‘Salt Bae’ because of his iconic way of sprinkling salt by letting salt fall down on his forearm then spread on the meat.  In March 2017 the applicant sought to register the following motion mark as an EU trade mark: The application was for certain goods and services in Classes 25 (clothing, trousers, jackets, overcoats, skirts, suits), 30 (coffee, cocoa, artificial coffee, coffee-based beverages, noodles, macaroni, ravioli, bread, pastry and bakery product...

The KitKat trade mark (as reported in the CJEU decision - the photocopier has not been kind) By now, the fate of the four fingered KitKat shape mark is old news -  Joined Cases C‑84/17 P, C‑85/17 P and C‑95/17 P   R umours of the mark’s death have been greatly exaggerated - it is now for the EUIPO to reconsider the evidence in light of the CJEU's ruling and reach a decision as to whether or not the mark is valid. Whilst the press may have put the cart before the horse, the CJEU’s decision does suggest that the mark will not remain registered long term. But this case has stickier and more sickly consequences for EU trade marks than a single chocolate bar. The real question is... What does this mean for acquired distinctiveness in the EU? It is not disputed that the shape mark (see above) is not inherently distinctive. Therefore, in order to avoid the mark being invalidated, Nestle had to show that it had acquired distinctiveness through the use that had been made of it in a suf...