Euro-Counsels

The French cour de cassation in a decision rendered the 8th April 2008 has overuled the jurisprudence forbidding the parody of registered trademarks. In this important decision, the associations Greenpeace France and Greenpeace New-Zealand had reproduced on their websites the letter A of the brand of the French Organization for atomic energy and the name Areva, both in association with a skull head and the slogan "Stop Plutonium, l’arret va de soi" which is a pun associating the brand Areva and the necessity to abandon the atomic energy. The companies sued the Greenpeace associations for trademark counterfeting and damages to the brand image.