In 1904 Franz Steiff, nephew of the toymaker Margarete Steiff, designed the Knopf im Ohr, the button in the ear. It was meant to set the company’s high-quality toys apart from cheap competitors. The mark was registered with the patent office in 1905. In 2014 the General Court of the European Union refused to protect the button with its tag as an EU trademark. The court found that it lacked distinctiveness.