With the approach of the Academy Award better known as "the Oscar" it may seem useful to remember the events related to the brand that bears the name of the well-known film award.

The Oscar was awarded for the first time May 16, 1929 and the nickname was probably attributed by Margaret Herrick, an employee at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who saw the statuette and said: "It looks just like my Uncle Oscar! "

The Oscar is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a few years ago, the Italian Sommelier Association was convicted in court before the Court of Rome guilty of having established the "Oscar of Wine".

In 2016, the Italian Supreme Court confirmed the validity of the Oscar Trademark with reference to the film industry, consequently attributing to the owner, the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), full rights to its exclusive use.

On the other hand, the Court declared the Oscar trademark lapsed for vulgarization in relation to services of different nature, in this case the services related to education and entertainment in the Class 41 of the Nice Classification. The phenomenon of vulgarization occurs when a brand is no longer used to identify the products of an entrepreneur from those of another entrepreneur but, simply, to identify the product (regardless of who produces it).

The Supreme Court has established that in order to ascertain whether the Oscar trademark is vulgarized is the context in which it is used.

If used to identify an award ceremony the Oscar trademark is fully valid. But, used in other contexts, the term rises to a common word that identifies a prize or an event linked to excellence.