Okonventionella varumärken : Ett decennium senare

Sammanfattning: Abstract Trademarks represent an important feature for manufacturers and are widely used to individualize the company's products and services and distinguish themselves from their competitors. Due to the technological development that has taken place in today's society, many manufacturers choose to present their brands in new ways and through different digital channels that have not been used in the past. This means that new types of trademarks have developed on the market, such as shape, color, scent and sound. These new types are called unconventional trademarks. So far, there has been a requirement that the mark should be graphically represented in order to be registered as a trademark. The requirement of graphic representation has meant that the mark can be perceived visually and can be reproduced on paper. This has created difficulties for certain types of unconventional trademarks, for example scent that can’t be perceived visually and is problematic to reproduce clearly on paper. Due to the adoption of the new trademarkregulation and the new trademarkdirective, the requirement of graphic representation has been removed and the representation should now take place in appropriate form rather than graphic. The purpose of the essay is to investigate how the legal situation has changed for the unconventional trademarks's ability to register in the last decade. We ́ve analysed how the new trademarkregulation and the new trademarkdirective will affect the possibility of registering unconventional trademarks in the EU and in Sweden. We have also investigated the problems with registration of unconventional trademarks, which problems will be eliminated due to the changes, the problems that will persist and the new problems that may arise and how they should be addressed. The result we’ve achieved is that the biggest development that has occurred regarding the possibility of registering unconventional trademarks is that the requirement of graphic representation has been removed. This leads to general improvements for most types of unconventional trademarks when the regulation is made technologically neutral and the representation can be done in a way that fits the current mark. A problem that will persist is how the scope of protection for unconventional trademarks should be assessed, as this is not further discussed in the new regulation or the new directive. We’ve found that there is a need for a statement from the legislator or from the European Court of Justice to clarify what is considered appropriate for registration as a trademark. With the changes that increase the possibilities for registration of unconventional trademarks, we consider it important to clarify to the manufacturers what marks that can and should be registered as trademarks.