Rubik's Cube shape not a trademark, rules top EU court

The shape of multicoloured three-dimensional puzzle Rubik's Cube is not a trademark, the European Court of Justice has ruled. It means the shape of the cube alone is not enough to protect it from being copied. UK company Seven Towns, which manages Rubik's Cube's intellectual property rights, registered its shape as a trademark in in the 1990s. But German firm Simba Toys challenged the trademark protection in 2006. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) agreed that the cube's ability to rotate should be protected by a patent and not a trademark.