We previously wrote about the dispute between the creators of the wellknown Dutch satire group ‘Jiskefet’ and the author of the Jiskefet encyclopedia. The creators of Jiskefet find this unauthorized Jiskefet encyclopedia humorless and because the brand name is in large capitals on the encyclopedia, their reputation would be damaged. The Amsterdam District Court agreed with Jiskefet and ruled that a sticker must be placed on the book and/or an insert stating that the book is unauthorized. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal reversed that ruling: publishing house Noblesse could still sell the Jiskefet encyclopedia without a sticker, wrapper and inlay sheet. 

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal had ruled that Noblesse does not take unfair advantage from the use of the Jiskefet trademark. The use does provide an advantage, but given the descriptive content of the book, this is not unfair. Also, the reputation of the Jiskefet trademark does not suffer from the use by Noblesse, after all, the book is actually very positive about Jiskefet. Noblesse therefore does not infringe the Jiskefet trademark. 

Jiskefet did not rest and went to the Supreme Court (in Dutch). Before the Supreme Court, Jiskefet still argues that Noblesse uses the Jiskefet trademark contrary to honest business practices. The Supreme Court decides that if a trademark infringement is not at stake, there cannot be any assessment whether or not the use of a trademark is honest. The "no infringement" judgment is the end of the trademark case; the trademark owner has no other trademark remedies. So Noblesse's Jiskefet encyclopedia will definitely go sticker-free from now on.

Mathijs Peijnenburg