As has already been reported on this blog (see here), the Court of Justice has annulled the decision of the General Court saying that the refusal of EUTM application FACK JU GÖHTE for being (allegedly) contrary to accepted principles of morality was incorrect (judgment of 26 February 2020, C- 240/18P). This refusal raised a number…

On 25 February 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have officially withdrawn their trade mark applications for the words “SUSSEX ROYAL” and “SUSSEX ROYAL THE FOUNDATION OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF SUSSEX”. The couple further announced that they will stop using the brand from Spring 2020. The couple launched their brand last April…

“What the FACK just happened?!”, some thought, when the CJEU delivered its judgment on the registrability of the trademark FACK JU GÖHTE on 27 February 2020. In case you are unfamiliar with the case, FACK JU is a phonetic transcription in German of “fuck you” and GÖHTE alludes to the late German writer Goethe. Following…

In Shaggy’s 2000 hit, the main character is caught cheating on his girlfriend and defends himself by simply denying the facts and repeating the phrase: “It wasn’t me!”. Contract manufacturers caught infringing intellectual property rights do not generally deny having manufactured the given infringing goods. However, they often claim that they are not liable, since…

On 16 December 2019, the Swedish Patent- and Market Court delivered a judgment on the registration of the company name GDL AB, reversing a long-standing practice of the Swedish Companies Registration Office (“Bolagsverket”) when it comes to the assessment of distinctiveness of company names. Why is the above relevant on a trademark blog one may…

Many trade mark owners will rejoice in CJEU’s decision in Skykick this week as the CJEU ruled that overly broad specifications will not automatically render a registered mark invalid and that the lack of intention to use the mark at the time of its application will not necessarily result in bad faith. Is this a…

We had reported on the introduction in Greece of mandatory mediation in trademark infringement disputes in this blog here and here. Law no 4640/2019 “Mediation on civil and commercial disputes – Further harmonization of Greek legislation with Directive 2008/52/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 21 May 2008 and other provisions” (the…

The so called “growth decree” (decree-law no. 34/2019, amended by the Italian Parliament as law 58/2019 in June 2019) has introduced a new category of marks in Italy: “historic marks” defined as those marks registered or used continuously for a period of at least 50 years to market products or services “made by an Italian manufacturing company of excellence, which…

What are the limits as regards the use of a well-known trademark to promote a contest? In two similar circumstances, two Spanish courts have reached different conclusions. In this article, we will analyze the circumstances of the legal proceedings and the dissonant approach taken by the Spanish courts: INDITEX v BUONGIORNO In this case, the…