In the third (and final) of our blogs reporting on the UK Court of Appeal decision in Lidl v Tesco, we examine the findings in relation to non-use revocation. At first instance, the judge found that certain trade mark registrations filed by Lidl in 1995, 2002, 2005 and 2007 for its ‘logo without text’ (the…
This is the first of three blog posts examining the UK Court of Appeal’s decision in the highly publicised dispute between Lidl and Tesco, concerning Tesco’s use of a blue and yellow sign (the “Tesco Sign”) for its Clubcard promotions. In a decision handed down on 19 March 2024, the Court of Appeal upheld the…
My 20-year old son Victor has started reading Homer’s Iliad. When he is done, I will suggest him the reading of the whole HALLOUMI story, which is as epic as the ancient poems. Epics are the stories on geographical indications from this part of Europe. The Greeks fought fiercely (and successfully) to consolidate a GI…
In her ‘Happy new year‘ (30 December 2022) post on this blog ‘Trademarks in Luxembourg‘ Verena von Bomhard shortly referred to the ECJ’s Classic Coach (C-112/21) decision of 2 June 2022 as relating to ‘the complex relationship between trademarks and earlier unregistered local and trade name rights‘. In the meantime, the matter returned to the…
Recent posts have examined the UK courts’ approach to IP law post-Brexit, and have examined decisions handed down shortly before the coming into force of REULA on 1 January 2024 (the UK legislation marking the end of the supremacy of EU law in the UK). A further Court of Appeal decision from the end of…
The Prague High Court as an appellate court issued its judgment in the case of Chanel S.A.S. against Notino s.r.o. (3 Cmo 107/2022-384 dated 28 November 2023) after an almost six-year legal battle with the Czech based online retailer Notino, a major European player in online sales of perfumery and cosmetics. The good news for…
At the end of last year, and shortly before the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (‘REULA’) came into force in the UK on 1 January 2024 (the legislation that officially brought an end to the principle of supremacy of EU law in the UK), the UK Court of Appeal departed from CJEU…
The start of 2024 marked a significant change in the UK legal landscape post-Brexit – the entry into force of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (‘REULA’). This is the first of two blogs looking at REULA, and at the UK Courts’ approach to EU law following the UK’s departure from the…
On 18 January 2024, in case C-367/21 (still no English version) the CJEU ruled again on the exhaustion of EU trade mark rights (following its five rulings of 17 November 2022 including C-175/21 Harman International Industries, C-224/20 Merck Sharp & Dohme, and C‑204/20 Bayer Intellectual Property). The Polish IP Court had referred questions to the…
A news publication could not rely on First Amendment protection for its use of a mark even though it made no attempt to parody the original. A news publication named with a common English language word could not invoke the First Amendment to protect it against a trademark claim against the owner of that mark—even…
