The mark had been registered in 2008 with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) but in 2015 it was challenged by an individual called Norbert Wisniewski.

Mr Wisniewski sought to have the mark invalidated on the basis it lacked the requisite distinctiveness to operate as a trademark.

The relevant authorities agreed with him.

A three-judge panel of the General Court of the European Union has now said, however, that the beige-and-blue chequerboard Damier mark was not inherently distinctive but that the inferior court, the Board of Appeal, had failed to examine Louis Vuitton’s evidence demonstrating acquired distinctiveness in the EU – meaning that consumers link the pattern with a particular source.

In rejecting Louis Vuitton’s argument that mark had inherent distinctiveness, it stated that the “Board of Appeal was correct in finding that, contrary to the applicant’s claims, the fact that the mark at issue was a basic and commonplace pattern that did not depart significantly from the norm or customs of the sector”.

The case will revert to the Board of Appeal unless appealed.