Violation of good manners
EU rejects drug lord Escobar as a trademark entry
April 17, 2024, 11:40 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
The name is known worldwide, rather notorious, there are films and Netflix even has its own series dedicated to it. But the drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was shot by the police in 1993, cannot become a registered trademark in Europe, a court has ruled. That would violate moral values.
The name of the notorious drug lord “Pablo Escobar” cannot be registered as a name for goods or services in the EU. The EU court in Luxembourg decided that the name is associated with drug trafficking, crime and suffering.
The Escobar company, based in Puerto Rico, wanted to register the term “Pablo Escobar” as a trademark with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for a wide range of goods and services. The office rejected the application: it violated common decency. The court explained that the trademark office was allowed to base its assessment on the perceptions of reasonable Spaniards with an average level of sensitivity and tolerance, who share the indivisible and universal values on which the EU is founded.
These included human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity as well as the principles of democracy and the rule of law and the right to life and physical integrity. The trademark office rightly decided that these people would associate Pablo Escobar’s name with drug trafficking and drug terrorism, the crimes and the resulting suffering – and not with possible benefits for the poor in Colombia, which the company argued.
Escobar, who died in 1993, is probably Colombia’s most feared drug lord. He founded the Medellín Cartel, earned billions from smuggling cocaine into the USA and is said to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.
The company sued the EU court to register the trademark – and now lost. Escobar will largely not be associated with his good deeds on behalf of the poor in Colombia, the judges ruled. Therefore, the registration violates moral values and norms. Escobar was never criminally convicted. However, he is perceived as a symbol of organized crime that is responsible for numerous crimes. Therefore, it does not violate the presumption of innocence if the trademark is not registered. The ruling can still be appealed to Europe’s highest court, the ECJ.