Statement by the FUEN Presidium: Better protection for regional and minority languages in EU trademark law

The Presidium of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) welcomes the initiative in the German Bundesrat by the German federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Saxony to protect regional and minority languages in EU trademark law. The Minority Council of the four autochthonous national minorities in Germany has also expressly welcomed the initiative. FUEN shares this assessment and sees it as an important signal beyond Germany.

The initiative addresses a question that is important for many language communities in Europe: How can it be ensured that terms, place names, language names and expressions from regional and minority languages are adequately taken into account in trademark law?

The case of “Öömrang” shows the problem very clearly. The term refers to the Frisian language spoken on the island of Amrum and was registered by a US company as a trademark for an alcoholic beverage. For the affected language community, such a case raises fundamental questions about how linguistic and cultural heritage is handled.

Regional and minority languages are part of Europe’s linguistic diversity. Their terms often have cultural and identity-forming significance for the respective communities. This significance must not be overlooked in trademark law.

From the perspective of the FUEN Presidium, the issue is not about restricting the visibility of regional and minority languages in business, culture or public life. On the contrary, this visibility can make an important contribution to the recognition of smaller languages. It becomes problematic when central terms of a language community can be monopolised under trademark law and the significance for the affected minority is not sufficiently taken into account in the procedure.

If trademark law primarily looks at how many people understand or use a term, small languages can easily fall behind. Precisely because these languages are spoken by fewer people, their terms must not be treated more readily as freely available trademark resources.

FUEN therefore supports the approach of amending Article 7 of the EU Trade Mark Regulation so that the languages protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages are explicitly taken into account. This would not be a special right, but a step towards greater equal treatment and legal certainty.

Any amendment to EU trademark law will require political support at national and European level. The Bundesrat initiative is an important first step. FUEN calls on the German Federal Government, the EU institutions and the EU Member States to take up this issue and strengthen the protection of regional and minority languages in trademark law.

FUEN will continue to follow this topic, evaluate the feedback from its member organisations and bring the perspective of the minorities into the further debate.