On September 23, 2016 the EU Commission published its Report on EU customs enforcement of intellectual property rights for 2015 – the annual publication of the result of customs actions at the EU external borders. As in previous years, the Report contains statistical information about the detentions made under customs procedures and includes data on…

There was not much about trademarks during this year’s AIPPI Congress, which was held from September 16 to 20 in Milan (see Panel Sessions and Study Questions). Most of the discussions were focused on such hot topics as the Unified Patent Court or Brexit (the latter of course involving some important trademark-related aspects) and one…

On July 5, 2016 the EU Commission published its “notice on the customs enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights concerning goods brought into the customs territory of the Union without being released for free circulation including goods in transit” (in short: “Transit Guidelines”). The document is a slightly delayed reaction to the recent changes in the…

In a judgment of 12 November 2015, the Court annulled the Fourth Board of Appeal’s decision refusing to suspend opposition proceedings, even though the trademark applicant proved that it has filed for revocation of the Romanian mark held against registration of its mark – by the way the baby food mark ALETE, which is very…

The Austrian Supreme Court (short “the Court”) denied a motion for a preliminary injunction (short “PI”) against the use of the mark “Duff (BEER)” based on the Claimant’s EUTM “Duff”, since the EUTM could be declared invalid on the basis of Defendant’s earlier German trademark rights (decision of 27.01.2016, 4 Ob 183/15p  – DUFF Beer)….

Slovak domain name registry administering .sk top level domain names SK-NIC published new Registration Rules and Dispute Resolution Rules effective as of 9 January 2017. The Registration Rules newly allow to hold a .sk domain name to any individual or legal entity having an address of service in any EU, EEA or EFTA Member State….

A lifestyle and hospitality company well known for its luxurious beach clubs and hotels, has recently succeeded in registering EPICUREAN LOUNGE word mark in the European Union. While the OHIM examiner initially refused the application on the grounds of descriptiveness, an appeal reversed the examiner’s decision. In September 2014, Nikki Beach filed a community trademark application…