EU court says no trademark protection for drug kingpin Pablo Escobar

(CN) — The name Pablo Escobar is associated with drug trafficking and narco-terrorism, the EU’s second-highest court said on Wednesday, and not eligible for trademark protection. 

The General Court of the European Court of Justice denied an appeal from Roberto Escobar, the brother of the late Medellín Cartel leader, who asked the Luxembourg-based court to overturn a rejection from the EU’s trademark office to protect the name “Pablo Escobar.” 

Consumers would “associate the name of Pablo Escobar with drug trafficking and narco-terrorism and with the crimes and suffering resulting therefrom,” the court wrote. 

The elder Escobar, who detailed his financial work with the cartel in the 2009 book "The Accountant’s Story," filed an application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office in 2021. Via a company registered in Puerto Rico, he sought to protect the use of the name “Pablo Escobar” on everything from clothing to makeup. 

In its rejection, the trademark office noted that during his two decades in organized crime, Escobar had 30 judges and 457 police agents killed and ordered the bombing of Flight Avianca 203, which crashed in 1989, killing more than 100 people. 

Roberto Escobar, who served more than a decade in prison for his role in the cartel, argued that his younger brother had never been convicted of any drug-related offenses and so to deny the trademark violated his late brother’s right to a presumption of innocence. 

The three-judge panel rejected this claim as “unfounded,” citing the widespread perception of Escobar as the leader of a criminal organization. 

Prior to his brother's death in a police raid in 1993, Roberto Escobar had already sought to capitalize on the family name. He registered a company in Colombia in 1984 and has brought legal action against companies that have referenced Escobar. 

In 2016, the company sued Netflix over the portrayal of Escobar in the hit series "Narcos." That lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount. Roberto Escobar sued rapper 2 Chainz in 2020 for $10 million after the Georgia musician opened several restaurants called “Escobar Restaurant and Tapas.” The eateries featured paintings of Pablo Escobar and served a signature cocktail called "The Columbian.” 

The decision can be appealed to the EU’s highest court. 

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