As we all know, the EUTM Regulation 2017/1001 now requires the applicant to indicate the goods and services for which the protection of the trademark is sought with sufficient clarity and precision to enable the competent authorities and economic operators, on that sole basis, to determine the extent of the protection sought. But what if…
The EU legislation does not provide for a definition of the concept of bad faith, but the EU case law in course of years has developed a number of criteria which offer guidance in assessing when a trademark was filed in bad faith. In the latest bad faith case, Koton Mağazacilik Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ…
The concept of genuine use of a trademark should be the same for all sorts of products/services, but for pharmaceuticals this is not always the case. Given the particular regulatory regime which applies to pharmaceuticals, often many years pass before the marketing authorization to any given new pharmaceutical specialty is granted. During that time, do…
Some (among whom, the truly yours) wondered, when in late June the US Supreme Court held unconstitutional the Lanham Act provision (15 U. S. C. §1052(a)) prohibiting registration of trademarks consisting of or comprising immoral or scandalous matter because it discriminates on the basis of viewpoint and therefore violates the free speech clause[1], whether freedom…
While the new EUTMR 2017/1001 deleted any reference to disclaimers – previously provided by Article 37(2) of EUTMR No. 207/2009 – both the EU Directive 2008/95 and the Recast Directive 2015/2436 neither allowed nor prohibited disclaimers at national level. Few Member States had disclaimers on their book (Sweden, Ireland and Latvia) and from Sweden the…
In a recent case decided by the Court of Venice (decision n. 2355/2018), MHCS, the producer, inter alia, of the famous Veuve Clicquot champagne, prevailed against a prosecco producer who used orange labels on its prosecco, based on its abstract colour mark “jaune orange” registered as an EUTM. However, absent proof of acquired distinctiveness for…
With decision n. 482 of 2019 the Italian Court of Torino decided on whether the beauty and the history of a car may be reasons to deserve copyright protection. The case regards the company Tecnomodel S.r.l. producer of miniature cars, including the models in scale 1/18 and 1/43 of the cars Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ and…
The EUTMR No. 2015/2424, as well as the Directive No. 2015/2436, have introduced various changes to EU and national trademark laws but both failed to provide transitory rules determining what is the applicable law for trademarks registered before the entry into force of the new law. In case C-21/18, Textilis Ltd and Ozgur Keskin v…
In the US to indicate two things which are truly… incomparable, one says “oranges and apples”. In continental EU, we say “apples and pears”. This case deals indeed with apples and pears. On 31 January 2019, the General Court of the European Union had to decide about the similarity between an apple and a pear…
Is being environmentally friendly a quality which matters for consumers? And if it does, what it is “allure”? On the judgment of the General Court of 12 December 2018 in case T-253/17 regarding genuine use of the sign of Der Grüne Punkt Der Grüne Punkt – Duales System Deutschland GmbH is the owner of a…
