A top European court banned the Soviet Union’s famous hammer and sickle from being used as a commercial trademark as it is “a symbol of despotism” in some EU countries.
The European Court of Justice said it was forced to refuse the request on the grounds of public morality, ending a five-year battle by a Russian designer to register the iconic coat of arms as a trademark across the 27-nation European Union.
It stated:”The symbols in question would be seen as contrary to public policy and to accepted principles of morality by a substantial section of the relevant public living in the part of the European Union which has been subject to the Soviet regime.”
The court singled out EU member states such as Latvia and the Czech Republic which were either part of the Soviet Union or Soviet satellite states.
It also noted that in Hungary such Soviet-era symbols “are considered to be ‘symbols of despotism’ and their use is contrary to public policy.”
The court’s decision was greeted with frustration in Russia where certain Soviet symbols still play a big part in any commemoration of the Second World War and where attempts to outlaw symbols of that era in the former Soviet Union are often seen as historical revisionism.
“The court’s decision is political and reflects a denial of Europe’s Soviet past,” Konstantin Kantyrev, a lawyer, told local media.
Separately, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper ran a bizarre article on the ruling, claiming that Europe was afraid of Soviet symbolism. “The court’s decision had little to do with economics or ethics,” it said. “It was about politics.”
The original Soviet coat of arms was first designed in 1923 and was used with minor modifications until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. It comprised a globe embossed with a hammer and sickle framed by ears of wheat.
A five-pointed red star was placed at its apex and a rising sun at its lower edge. The motto ‘Workers of the World Unite!’ was inscribed on a red ribbon at the bottom in Russian and in other languages around the coat of arms.
By Andrew Osborn, Moscow