Halloween, the Chestnut Festival and the annual spike in filings: a legal approach to protecting trademarks, designs and seasonal creations

29 October, 2025
–
Industrial Property, Intellectual property
–
Lucas Charnet

!Aparador nocturn amb carabassa i disfresses; protecció legal de marques i dissenys per Halloween.

As autumn sets in—leaves falling and air turning crisp—the friendly rivalry between Halloween and the Chestnut Festival (“Castanyada”) returns. The former, largely imported through the Anglo-Saxon audiovisual machine—films, series and campaigns arriving from the United States and the United Kingdom—dominates shop windows and social feeds with costumes, pumpkins and an inexhaustible visual universe; the latter preserves its family tone with roasted chestnuts and panellets. Beyond aesthetics and tradition, however, lies a reality that often goes unnoticed yet directly impacts business: this period concentrates the largest annual spike in intellectual and industrial property filings. Why does Halloween—with its commercial plasticity and rapid product turnover—multiply registrable trademarks, designs, works and technical solutions? What should you protect, when should you do it, and how can you avoid conflicts in the middle of the season? In this article, we explain.

Halloween vs. the Chestnut Festival (and the shadow of Christmas)

Halloween hasn’t prevailed solely because of the cultural momentum projected by decades of Anglo-Saxon film, television and entertainment. It has also done so because the very model of the celebration amplifies that wave: its extraordinary commercial plasticity. While the Chestnut Festival preserves an intimate, home-centred ritual, Halloween operates as a commercial machine of applied creativity.
Each year brings new aesthetics, viral characters, nods to films and memes, and colour/type combinations that take over campaigns and products. Compared with Christmas, the overall volume may be similar, but Halloween’s diversity is more complex and faster-moving. Christmas leans on a relatively stable repertoire—reds, greens, golds and traditional iconography—whereas Halloween is ruled by constant rotation: every season sees new costumes, fresh product lines, reinvented packaging and short-lived collaborations that force quick reactions.

This dynamism creates fertile ground for legal protection, multiplying registrable assets and, with them, the need to anticipate protection.

31 October: calendar, symbols and a commercial opportunity

31 October is not just a date circled by marketers. Its historical rootedness—from the Celtic Samhain to All Saints’ festivities—explains the season’s emotional anchoring. Today, however, what truly moves the needle is the ability to turn symbols into value propositions and the sheer volume of products that follows—so much so that the law must organise the terrain to guarantee exclusivities and avoid confusion.
A pumpkin with distinctive features can become a protectable key visual; a dripping typeface may acquire distinctiveness as a logo; a mask with singular relief becomes a design; a mechanism that vibrates or lights up a decorative piece may warrant technical protection. The line between tradition and business blurs and, precisely there, the law sets the rules of the game.

IP and industrial property: what each right protects (with real campaign examples)

As we’ve noted before on this blog, there’s often confusion when someone wants to “register an idea.” Ideas aren’t registrable: what the law protects is the way they are expressed or embodied. Hence the distinction between copyright, trademarks, industrial designs, and patents or utility models, each with its role (see our blog article).

When we talk about copyright, we mean original creations: illustrations for packaging, seasonal patterns, storyboards and scripts for spots or films, jingles, slogans with sufficient creativity, or campaign photography. Copyright arises upon creation—no registration is required for it to exist—yet professional practice demands proof of date and authorship to license safely and respond to copying, especially on large platforms such as Amazon. In such cases, a probative deposit or registry speeds up takedowns on marketplaces and social networks, without needing to resort immediately to court. To learn more about registering your creations, visit this article on our blog.

A similar logic applies in audiovisual and music: horror franchises like Saw or Scream protect not only their titles but also iconic elements such as the antagonists’ masks; and musical works like Michael Jackson’s Thriller are seasonal classics whose use is carefully controlled under copyright to avoid unauthorised exploitation in campaigns.

Trademarks protect a company’s product or service in the market: the name of the collection, the logo representing it, a colour combination associated with the line, or, in some cases, the shape of the product if it has acquired distinctiveness. For a manufacturer launching a Halloween line of scented candles, filing the trademark in the appropriate classes helps stop imitation, organise licensing and maintain quality control. A strong mark also facilitates territorial expansion via filings with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM), the EUIPO, or, where appropriate, through the Madrid System. For more on how to register your trademark, see this article on our blog.

Industrial design protects the external appearance of the product: lines, contours, reliefs, textures or ornamentation. It’s the right tool for packaging with a pumpkin-shaped window featuring singular traits, for a mask with a relief pattern, or for a decorative item that combines geometry and surface in a distinctive way. In seasonal campaigns it’s strategic to think in design families to cover size or ornamentation variants and increase deterrence. Deferred publication can be useful if you want to preserve the surprise until launch.

Finally, patents and utility models protect technical solutions. A mechanism that activates sound-reactive lights on a façade decoration, a child-safety system for a helmet-costume, or a recipe-process with novelty and inventive step may justify protection. In Spain, the utility model offers an agile path for technical improvements in seasonal products, provided novelty is preserved through confidentiality and the trade-fair/launch calendar is coordinated to avoid premature disclosure.

Conclusion: behind every festivity, a legal strategy

Halloween and the Chestnut Festival concentrate innovation, speed and competition. The difference between a memorable campaign and a legal headache lies in getting there first with smart coverage: a solid mark, protected design, evidenced authorship, watertight contracts and active monitoring. If you’re preparing your collection, drop, or promotional action, now is the time to secure exclusivity—and returns.

At MES Advocats, we provide end-to-end, hands-on advice for the registration, protection and management of creative works and industrial assets, with a personalised and efficient service. Our experience allows us to offer a fast, tailored approach with excellent results. If you’d like more information or a quote, don’t hesitate to contact us.

###


CastanyadaCo-brandingDisseny industrialCopyrightEUIPOHalloweenLlicènciesTrademarksMàrqueting estacionalModels d’utilitatOEPMPatentesRegistre de marques

---