The prolific artist may be forced to reveal his 23-year hidden identity due to trademark technical issues.
The European Union’s Intellectual Property has ruled that the European artist is unable to attain a trademark for his work under a hidden identity. Banksy has been in a legal battle for the past two years with UK company, Full Colour Black, over the use of the Flower Thrower artwork painted on their cards.
The artist applied and received a trademark for the particular piece however this prompted the card company to file a case against Banksy stating he had no intention to use the actual trademark. This claim was fuelled as Banksy had written in a previous book that “copyright is for losers.” This prompted Banksy to retort by opening his own store but unfortunately did not work in his favour. The judges came to the conclusion that “The use, which was only made after the initiation of the present proceedings, was identified as use to circumvent the requirements of trademark law and thus there was no intention to genuinely use the sign as a trademark.” Now that this particular ruling has been set, this may cause an issue for the rest of Banksy’s artwork as they now face the same trademarking issue.
In order to attain a trademark for his own work, the artist may be forced to reveal an identity they have kept hidden for over 2 decades.
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