The battle for Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh spent his life in various places in Europe.

He lived in Paris and London as an art dealer, and made most of his artworks in Brabant and France. These days, the works of Van Gogh are exhibited all over the world.

 The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has registered the mark VAN GOGH for a range of products and services, and exhibits an extensive collection of Vincent van Gogh’s work. Recently, the Van Gogh Sites Foundation, which organises exhibitions related to the places in Brabant where Van Gogh is known to have worked, filed an application for the logo VAN GOGH in the European Union. The Van Gogh Museum has filed an opposition to this trademark application.

When it comes to people as famous as Vincent Van Gogh, the question of who may lay claim to the name becomes an issue. Does the Van Gogh Museum have a better claim than any other museum to the name, simply because they registered it earlier? That is often the case. This conflict is reminiscent of the tussle between the Anne Frank Museum and the Anne Frank Foundation over the trademark ANNE FRANK, which went on for many years and was ultimately won by the museum.

Usually the intentions of the parties are good in these cases and the parties actually have the same goal. The same appears to be the situation in this case. The Van Gogh Museum and the Van Gogh Sites Foundation even work together, according to the website of the foundation. It is therefore striking that this matter is still resulting in a legal procedure. There will be no real winners after all.