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Erno Rubik applied for a Hungarian patent for the structural design of his toy cube in 1975, but failed to register the puzzle on an international basis within a year of the original patent. That prevented such registrations so protection could only be obtained in the name RUBIK'S CUBE as a trade mark. 350 million cubes have sold since 1980 and its magic is still working as global sales have recently rocketed despite the economic downturn. The original patent has since lapsed. Seven Towns Limited, the British firm that licences all of Rubik's creations, sought better trade mark protection for the iconic cube by registering graphic representations of its shape as three dimensional marks in the 27 European Union member states and elsewhere in the world. Seven Towns has been in a long-standing conflict with the German toy maker, Simba, that has been selling nearly identical looking cubes throughout Europe. It brought infringement actions against Simba in Germany but these were suspended pending counter applications by Simba to invalidate the shape-based trade mark registrations. Simba averred that the cube lacked the necessary distinctiveness to qualify as a trade mark, that its shape was dictated solely by technology to obtain a specific result and consequently it should be unregistrable in terms of trade mark legislation. In a court ruling the European Union Trade Mark Office refused to remove the registrations from its register. This has paved the way for Seven Towns to resume its infringement actions against the Simba cube. This dispute underlines that where there is an overlap between patent and trade mark protection, inventors may choose rather to register trade marks as they can endure indefinitely, provided they are renewed. Ruling of Cancellation Division of EU Trade Marks Office dated 14 October 2008.