The Intellectual Property Court of Japan denied the registration of a color trademark requested by Hermès. Despite the company’s attempts to demonstrate the distinctiveness of its orange color, it was deemed not to be indicative of such business origin.
Thus, the Court determined that the color, although commonly associated with the Hermès, was not inherently distinctive nor had it acquired such character over time, even though Hermès provided surveys to support its case.
With this denial, Hermès joins the list of companies that failed to register their color trademarks in Japan. In 2023 this was the case for Louboutin, who failed to register its red color. These decisions reflect on the challenges associated with the registration of color trademarks in Japan, where the authorities are more rigorous than in the United States.
