14 maj 2020
Højesteret
Appeal from the Maritime and Commercial Court allowed
Appeal to the Supreme Court of the Maritime and Commercial Court's judgment in a case concerning the right to commercial use of own name allowed
Case no. 263/2015
Decision made on 5 February 2016.
Benedikte Utzon
vs.
Topbrands represented by Lasse Skaarup Jensen
The case concerned whether all name and trade mark rights to the use of "Benedikte Utzon" were transferred in 2012 from the bankruptcy estate of the design company Benedikte Utzon A/S to Topbrands represented by Lasse Skaarup Jensen, and if relevant, whether the designer Benedikte Utzon's subsequent use of her name for commercial purposes amounted to an infringement of Topbrands' trade mark rights.
The Supreme Court found that the case gives rise to an issue of general public importance concerning the right to commercial use of one's own name, cf. section 5(i) of the Danish Trade Marks Act, and the related provisions of the Trade Mark Directive and the Trade Mark Regulation, and that the outcome of the case must be assumed to have general importance to the use of law concerning trade marks.
The conditions for allowing an appeal to the Supreme Court had thus been fulfilled.