Jaguar implicated in ECJ mystery
Another mystery intellectual property case has caught the IPKat's attention: it's Case C-238/09, Handelsmaatschappij J. van Hilst and Others v The Jaguar Collection Limited and Others, a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling. The reference was made by the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (the Dutch Supreme Court) on 1 July 2009 but sadly for all IP enthusiasts,"By order of 20 July 2009 the case was removed from the Register of the Court of Justice".Assuming that it wasn't removed simply because the language of the case was Dutch, there must have been more to it - but what? The IPKat is fond of Jaguars, since they are beautiful cats with lovely coats, but he's never heard of anyone collecting them. And what's the IP issue? Was some mean-minded soul trying to register the pattern of the Jaguar's coat as a design? Or was this a cunningly-disguised attempt to register the big cat as a three-dimensional trade mark?
Off went the Kat to find some background -- but he didn't find much to guide him. There's this item on the Dutch Boek 9 blog, but the IPKat's Dutch isn't very good, and a Google News search of the parties' names drew a blank. Can anyone help, please?
