Voided Banksy ™

By Isabella Rivera.

The provocative artist by the pseudonym of “Banksy” has been known for provocative and politically-driven sardonic street art since the 1990s.^[1] The artist has been making headlines with artworks such as the “Balloon Girl” which self-destructed after fetching $1.4 at Sotheby’s in 2019^[2] and the 2020 pink refugee rescue boat, Louise Michel. Inspired by Banksy’s fame, many vendors have tried to copy Banksy, including a London-based greeting card company, Full Colour Black, Ltd. (“FCB”). After two years of battle, a panel of European Union Intellectual Property Office (“EUIPO”) judges resolved the trademark dispute in favor of the card company.^[3]

On July 2, 2014, Banksy, through his company and “Parent/Legal Guardian for the artist Banksy” Pest Control,^[4] sought to register a European Union Trade Mark (“EUTM”) over many of his iconic designs, including the “Flower Thrower”, in an attempt to safeguard his intellectual property and resulting in the registration of 14 marks. In 2019, FCB, a UK greeting card and stationery products company, began selling greeting cards featuring Banksy’s “Flower Thrower” and, later that year, filed a trademark opposition before the EUIPO arguing that Banksy’s filing for trademark registration should be void due to the lack of proper trade use. In response, to insure that all “services and goods” bearing Banksy’s registered marks be associated with his name and to protect his goodwill, Banksy unveiled a brick-and-mortar pop up store in Croydon, UK, called Gross Domestic Product, along with an online site. FCB used Banksy’s last-minute attempts to validate his registration to argue that he has not made any prior use in commerce and that he was only avoiding to lose the trademark, to which the EUIPO opined.^[5]