The EU Commission finds that the transfer of trademarks to the Danish Dairy Board is illegal State aid (Lurpak)

Transfer of Trademarks* The free transfer of a trademark that belongs to the state confers two possible advantages to the new owner if there is a market for that trademark Introduction When a public authority places at the disposal of an undertaking a public asset, it confers to that undertaking a competitive advantage. The competitive advantage is eliminated whenever that public authority charges a market price. A public asset, in this sense, can be anything for which there is a market, such as a building, a piece of land, a piece of paper such as a tradable emission permit or any transferable licence such as a taxi permit. For such assets markets do exist because the assets can be sold or rented out to third parties. After all, the essence of the market is that it is a mechanism