Ian Craig comments on the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice that Nestlé's "Have a Break...Have a Kit Kat" slogan may have acquired sufficient distinctiveness to qualify for trademark protection, under a 1988 EU directive.  Craig considers it "crazy to conclude that 'Have a Break' could be an independent trademark," continuing that "the phrase is a generic term for having a rest, and the ECJ should have ruled that a mark, which is only a part of a trademark, can never obtain obtain distinctiveness as a matter of law."  Nonetheless, Craig predicts that this ruling moves European trademark law ever closer to the American model, a move he suggests threatens to transform European trademarks from signposts to quality and origin to commodities in their own right, irrespective of the particular goods to which they are attached.

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