British street art artist and activist Banksy lost a lawsuit with a greeting card maker who wanted to use his graffiti known as Love is in The Air or Flower Thrower. According to a decision of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the artist’s trademark is invalid and the work can therefore be freely reproduced.
A picture of a protesting man in a half-covered face cap throwing a bouquet of flowers was created by Banksy in 2005 in Jerusalem. The dispute over whether the work is under a trademark was led by the British company Full Color Black with the Pest Control Office, which represented an artist whose real name and identity are unknown.
Full Color Black sells products printed in Banksy’s parts. The company argued that the trademark on the bouquet thrower, which the artist had registered in 2014, is not valid because Banksy himself does not use it. She also claimed that he had asked for it only to prevent “the continued use of a work he had already reproduced” and recalled that the artist himself had written “copyright is for looters” in one of his books.
The office agreed with her, even though Banksy began selling his own line of products himself online at a Gross Domestic Product store after Full Color Black lodged a complaint. According to European investigators, the deal was created only to prove that Banksy was in fact using the mark and not for the purpose of selling as such. An appeal may be lodged against the decision of the Office.
All that is known about Banksy is that he came from Bristol and moved to London in the late 1990s. He made a name for himself with his socially critical and often controversial works.
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