Cartier loses 'love' trademark case in Singapore

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Jan 3, 2019

France's Cartier is unlucky in love this week, after losing a trademark case against MoneyMax, where the luxury jewellery house attempted to block the Asian pawnbroking chain from using words 'love' and 'gold' in its branding.

According to local media reports on Tuesday, a Singapore court has found that the Cartier-filed lawsuit to prevent MoneyMax from owning a trademark that features the word 'love' and 'gold', set inside a rectangle, was invalid, despite similarities to Cartier's iconic 'love' bracelet.

"A (love) bracelet may represent a metaphorical shackle of a person’s loved one. The word ‘love’, however, should be free for traders to incorporate into their trademarks for jewellery," court registrar Mark Lim Fung Chian told the Singapore Times.

With the trademark application commencing in January 2017, MoneyMax is now permitted to register its ‘Love Gold’ mark under the Act’s Class 14 for jewellery and Class 35 for retail and other services relating to jewellery.

Under the agreement, MoneyMax's range of jewellery products featuring chains, earrings and bracelets will now sport its 'Love Gold' logo, which can be also used for retail services, such as marketing, online advertising and other goods sold across its stores in Singapore and Malaysia.

The Richemont-owned Cartier International said its earlier registration of the "love" mark in Class 14 goods supported its trademark case. However, in the use of the word "love", the letter "O" is replaced with a slotted screwhead and the letter "e" is in lower case, unlike the other letters in the word.

First designed in 1969, ​Cartier's "love" bracelet secured and can be removed only by using a gold "screwdriver" that is sold with the bracelet.