In a devastating blow to popular street artist Banksy, the EU Trademark Council has now ruled that his own copyright is actually invalid. According to the Independent, Banksy was engulfed in a nasty copyright dispute with a greeting card company over the unfair use of his own work that he apparently never authorized.
The Independent notes that Full Colour Black (a bizarre name for a greeting card company by the way) argued in court that Banksy ‘s 2014 trademark for the painting (pictured above) actually didn’t exist and wasn’t lawful. In their argument, the company successfully claimed that Banksy didn’t obtain the copyright out of fair game; had never been in commerce before, and therefore the portrait and use of such was fair game.
It is in fact one of the latest examples of how flawed the European copyright system actually is.
Discover more from Bazaar Daily News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.