Korean company THEFACESHOP Co., LTD, Seoul, Korea, registered the mark TheFaceShop (see Fig.1) claiming protection for cosmetics, perfumes and related products and retail trade therewith in March 2014 in Switzerland. As one can imagine, the British company THE BODY SHOP INTERNATIONAL PLC, Sussex, England, was not amused and opposed the registration based on its word mark…
Denmark: 3D-marks – so desirable and yet so hard to get Lately, there have been four interesting 3D-cases in Denmark based on absolute grounds. The first case is a decision by the Danish Board of Appal (hereafter called DBoA) which related to an application by Christian Louboutin for the following 3D mark under application number…
And the winner is… the Oscar. It is hard not to connect the word ‘Oscar’ to the statuette awarded every year in Los Angeles for the best movies, directors, actors and producers. At the same time, when used in different sectors, the term ‘Oscar’ should now be considered as generic. This is – at least…
Emerald Cities Collaborative, Inc. (ECC) was unable to show that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s cancellation of its trademark registration of THE EMERALD CITY and dismissing its opposition to an application filed by Sheri Jean Roese (“Roese”) was an error, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Board did…
A recent judgment by the Beijing IP Court has thwarted Apple’s attempts to obtain trademark protection for the standby screen of the iWatch! Apple may appeal this judgment. On 13 November 2014 Apple had applied to file the sign depicted in Figure 1 as a trademark in China in classes 9, 10, 14, and 38….
On November 15, 2016, the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (“PRV”) rejected an application for trademark protection of the a figurative mark consisting of a hand giving the middle finger on the ground that it was contrary to accepted principles of morality in accordance to Chapter 2, Article 7 of the Swedish Trademark Act. The…
In a recent decision, the Federal Administrative Court reminded everybody that under Article 5(2)(a) Madrid Protocol, any refusal of protection of an international mark may only be based on the reasons that have been notified to International Bureau (WIPO) within the one year period from the date on which the notification of the extension has…
An injunction preventing China-based Sun Earth Solar Power Co. and its U.S. affiliate NBSolar, Inc. (collectively, “SESP”) from using the trademark “Sun-Earth,” while permitting SESP to state within the United States the fact of their affiliation with the Sun-Earth name and mark that they used outside of the United States, and to allow SESP to…
The UK High Court (‘HC’) decision in Victoria Plum Ltd v Victorian Plumbing Ltd & Ors [2016] EWHC 2911 concerns the use of AdWords by co-existing competitors bidding on each others’ names. Of particular interest are the issues raised by the parties’ co-existence and involves an unsuccessful defence of “honest concurrent use” (a defence not provided…
In mid-November, the Russian Intellectual Property Court published a noteworthy decision shedding light on an ambiguous pre-trial procedure in IP disputes. The procedure (effective since 1 June 2016) has raised numerous concerns over its adverse effect on IP enforcement. On November 18, 2016, the Russian IP Court reviewed the dispute between Daimler AG and TMR…
