“Zorro” Trademark Declared Invalid in Europe

Late last month, the cancelation division of the office that manages community trademarks within the European Union issued a ruling declaring that a “Zorro” trademark was invalid in the categories of printed matter and entertainment. According to a just-released English version of the ruling, when the average consumer sees “Zorro”, he or she will assume the story of the character is being told, but not recognize “Zorro” as an indicator of origin. As such, it's deemed to be merely descriptive and not sufficiently distinctive.


The decision is a blow to Zorro Productions Inc, which claims to have inherited intellectual property rights deriving from Johnston McCulley's first Zorro story published in 1919 and has a deal with Sony Pictures.