Anti- Counterfeiting, Czech Republic, EU trade mark law, Exhaustion of rights, Grey online sales, Parallel imports, Trademark

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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…

Czech Republic, Defences, General Court, Infringement, Infringement action, Parallel imports, Supreme Court

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The Czech Supreme Court issued a judgment in the case of Fiskars Corporation against Mountfield a.s. (23 Cdo 5955/2017-231 dated 29 May 2019). Fiskars sued Mountfield, a home improvement and gardening retailer, among others, for trademark infringement consisting in illegal parallel imports from North America to the EU of Fiskars branded axes. The defendant did…

Czechia, Infringement, Opposition, Registrability, Slovakia, Trademark, Use requirement

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Amendments to the Czech and Slovak Trademark Acts implementing the EU trademark reform of 2015 have been recently passed by the respective parliaments. The amendments will become effective on 1 January 2019 in Czechia and on 14 January 2019 in Slovakia. There are 3 major changes to be noted: 1) New definition of a trademark…

Domain name, Domains, Slovakia

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The first-ever ADR domain name proceedings took place in Slovakia since introduction of the procedure in September 2017. The case involved a dispute over the domain name <vogue.sk>. The complainant – publishing company Les Publications Conde Nast S.A. as the owner of the VOGUE trademarks sought the transfer of the disputed domain name against the…

Case law, Czechia, EUTM, Infringement

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The Czech Supreme Court has recently confirmed that it is an act of unfair competition to file a take-down notice to a social media network claiming intellectual property infringement while omitting further relevant information. The court ordered the defendant to make a submission to the social media network withdrawing the take-down notice and to pay…

Domain name, Domains, Infringement action

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The facts of the case litigated between Gulf Oil Benelux and Milan Vondal before the Prague High Courts prima facie appear to be a typical scenario of a domain name dispute. Yet, the owner of an earlier word mark failed to recover the domain name gulf.cz from his former exclusive distributor despite the domain name…

Domain name, European Union

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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….

Czech Republic

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The Prague City Court reviewed decision of the Czech Industrial Property Office on invalidity of trademark “Partners banka” logo filed by the largest provider of financial advisory services in the Czech Republic. The trademark owner did not hold a banking licence. The court held that the Office did not err when it invalidated the trademark…

European Union, Genuine use, Opposition

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The European trademark package published in the EU Official Journal on 24 December 2015 brings numerous amendments of the EU Trademark Regulation and EU Trademark Directive. From the point of view of Czech and Slovak Industrial Property Offices, the reform package will result in a major procedural novelty consisting in the applicant’s right to require…