Iceland (the country) launches initiative to protect its name worldwide

Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash

Following last year’s conclusion of a 10-year long battle between the Government of Iceland and the UK frozen food retail chain Iceland (as reported by The Guardian here), which saw the latter lose its EU trade mark rights to the word ‘Iceland’, Iceland (the country) is now launching a global campaign to monitor the use of its name and prevent its misuse.

The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, RUV, reports that bodies including Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education, the Icelandic Intellectual Property Office, the Confederation of Icelandic Employers, Icelandic Trademark Holding, and Íslandsstofa (Business Iceland) have banded together for the initiative.

The partnership will monitor how the name Iceland is used overseas and respond when its use is considered contrary to Icelandic interests. Companies which use the word ‘Iceland’ may be asked to clarify what the connection with the country is, and the Icelandic origin of products. Any attempts to register Iceland or variations of the country’s name as trade marks that could affect Icelandic business and cultural interests are likely to be opposed.

The initiative follows the country’s successful battle to stop UK supermarket chain Iceland Foods from registering the name Iceland as a trade mark in parts of Europe. The Nordic country’s Government was concerned about potential restrictions on Icelandic businesses trying to market their products in Europe and elsewhere.

As reported by IP industry blog site the IPKat, in July 2025, the EU General Court ruled against the British supermarket, Iceland, in its trade mark dispute with the Nordic nation.

The IPKat said that the Court upheld an earlier ruling by the Grand Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in 2022, which ruled the UK retailer’s trade marks invalid on the grounds of geographical descriptiveness.

In 2015, the supermarket chain opposed an EU trade mark application to register the mark INSPIRED BY ICELAND, filed by Íslandsstofa (Promote Iceland). That triggered the 10-year fight by the country to reclaim rights to its own name.

IPKat reported that in its final 2025 ruling, the EU General Court did not rule that Iceland, the country, had sole rights over its name or that Iceland, the retailer, had to change its name. Rather, it stressed that it was in the public interest for geographically descriptive names to remain freely available for use by all, "not least because they may be an indication of the quality and other characteristics of the categories of goods concerned, and may also, in various ways, influence consumer tastes by, for instance, associating the goods with a place that may give rise to a favourable response."

The ruling, and earlier rulings, mean that anybody looking to use a country name or geographic location name as a trade mark would have to be able to satisfy the EUIPO that it had a genuine link to the country or place, or that through long term use it has established such a link in the consumer’s mind. Otherwise, the EUIPO would refuse to grant the trade mark in question on the grounds that it was not primarily descriptive of geographical origin.

Following the EU General Court ruling, the UK retailer’s chairman Lord Walker told the FT that while the company did have a final option of appealing to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the board had instead decided to save the “couple of hundred grand” it would have to spend in legal fees and use the money to run a promotional “rapprochement discount” for Icelandic shoppers.

He also told the FT: “We lost for a third time. We’re going to throw in the towel. It’s actually fine – we don’t have to change our name.”

Iceland, the retailer, is based on Deeside, North Wales and has more than 900 company-owned stores across the UK, trading under the Iceland and The Food Warehouse names. Iceland also has franchised stores in the Channel Islands, Spain, and Portugal.

Oddly, given the fight between the two Icelands, in 2024 the UK company went into partnership with Icelandic investment group SKEL to distribute its products in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland through a joint venture known as ICE JV EHF.

In 2025, the UK company also signed a deal to supply its Iceland branded frozen products to ‘shop in shop’ concessions within Icelandic retailer Nettó stores in the country. There is also a stand-alone Iceland supermarket in Reykjavik.