The hero soldiers of the famous Fortnite video game seem to have lowered their guard. The protection offered by some trademark registrations for some products and the global reputation of the trademark were not sufficient to cover some holes in the defense of the trademark in Europe.
In fact, a Chinese company has filed an application for registering an EUTM for FORTNITE in relation to various products, including printed matters and bags. The owner of the well-known FORTNITE trademark, Epic Games, moved late, realizing only at that moment that it had not protected the trademark also for these products. He therefore filed an application for them too and opposed the Chinese company’s application, basing it both on the similarity of the trademark to its existing registrations, and on the reputation of the trademark. But proving this is not so simple before Euipo and, therefore, its opposition has been accepted only for a part of the products for which it has demonstrated affinity with those previously protected, while it will have to suffer the existence of an identical mark of a third party for some categories of products.