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BMW’s shipwrecked cars confirm limits of EU trademark law

By Inbar Preiss ( August 21, 2025, 11:04 GMT | Comment) -- A Dutch court has backed BMW in blocking the resale of cars bound for Taiwan that were salvaged from a ship fire, clarifying that goods in transit under a customs status that are in Europe but not officially released onto the EU market  do not exhaust EU trademark rights. In July 2023, the Fremantle Highway, a freight ship, caught fire near the Dutch coast and burned for more than a week, sending plumes of smoke into the sky above the North Sea. On board were around 3,000 brand-new cars, including hundreds of BMWs destined for Taiwan....

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