Writing in World Trademark Report, Evelina Serelyte (AAA Baltic Service Company, Vilnius) notes the decision of the Board of Appeal of the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania to uphold the opposition filed by the European Commission (Opposition 1959) to the application by Juustutoeoestus OUE to register a figurative mark containing the word EURO-FARMERS for goods in Classes 16, 29, 30 and 31 on the grounds that the mark imitated the European flag from a heraldic point of view (Case 2Ap-1045, 31 March 2008).

Under Article 6ter(1)(b) of the Paris Convention, armorial bearings, flags and other emblems may not be registered as trade marks; nor may abbreviations and names of international intergovernmental organizations. The Commission submitted evidence that the European flag was included in the World Intellectual Property Organization database of protected emblems. The Board of Appeal agreed, also accepting the Commission's submission that the word element ‘Euro~farmers’ reinforced the impression that there was a link between the mark and the European Union because the prefix ‘Euro’ could be understood as a reference to the European Union; not only that, but the word ‘farmers’ referred to agriculture, one of the main fields of activity of the European Union.