The body of law drawn from the precedents set by earlier decisions.
Express Oil Change’s use of the phrase “Tire Engineers” in its Mississippi centers was protected commercial speech. Case date: 19 February 2019 Case number: No. 18-60144 Court: United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
In the beginning of this year a decision regarding the trademark right to the name of the iconic Danish faience set with the thin blue line on the edges, was issued by the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court (Decision no. BS.9705/2017-SHR of 18 January 2019). Both the designer of the faience set as pictured here,…
The discrepancy between the case law using geographical origin as a reason for rejection of a trademark in the EU and at the DKPTO, respectively, is becoming increasingly noticeable; most recently with the judgement from the General Court in T-122/17 DEVIN on the registrability of the geographical name DEVIN. The discrepancy concerns the issue when…
In a recent case from the Swedish Patent and Market Court, the court dismissed Dalecarlia Chocolates AB’s (Dalecarlia) infringement claim of their EU and Swedish 3D marks in relation to chocolate, candy and confectionery (class 30). The 3D marks, depicted below, are formed as a Dala horse – a traditional, wooden horse statue originating from…
The creators of a seminar critical of Applied Underwriters Inc.’s EquityComp insurance program did not infringe or dilute Applied’s federally registered trademarks by using them in the name of their seminar or the promotional materials related to it, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco has held. In affirming a district court’s dismissal because…
The Board erred by disregarding evidence of the lender’s longtime use of its mark in the same location as a similar registered mark, without consumer confusion. Because this was evidence that confusion was unlikely, the Board’s error was not harmless. Case date: 14 January 2019 Case number: No. 2017-2620 Court: United States Court of Appeals, Federal…
It is longstanding practice in fashion to designate certain products not only by illegible article numbers, but by names. Many times male or female personal names are chosen. When there is a broad range of products, many names are needed by a fashion company. Many times these will not be needed for a long time,…
Not for the first time this year, have we seen the granting of copyright protection on a project of interior furnishing. Following the Court of Milan’s ruling which recognised copyright protection of Kiko’s concept stores, the Court of Venice was also called to pronounce – in the context of an interim proceedings – on the…
The International Trade Commission (ITC) erred when it reassessed the sufficiency of Laerdal Medical Corp.’s trade dress claims against defaulting respondents after instituting an investigation of the claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held. Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. §1337, unambiguously requires the…
The Sofia City Court, Commercial Division reached a landmark decision on November 15, 2018, when it issued a judgement holding that the company REZON Ltd., which manages and operates the on-line marketplace <bazar.bg>, violated the rights of the trademark owner PHILIPP PLEIN. The breach occurred through the use of these trademarks in the commercial activity…
