Perfume Gets Copyright Protection in the Netherlands

According to a July 16, 2004 posting in IPKat by an associate with the Dutch law firm of NautaDutilh, his firm succeeded in convincing a Dutch court that the blend of ingredients in Lancome's TRESOR perfume constituted an original work of authorship that was infringed by a competitor using 24 of the 26 olfactory components:

The Tresor perfume was considered by the court as having an original character bearing the personal imprint of its creator, thus entitling it to copyright protection in the Netherlands. In view of this, and the improbability of the resemblance to Tresor being coincidental, the court concluded that the defendant had deliberately and unlawfully infringed Lancomes copyright.