As reported earlier this year, in a ruling dated February 12, 2018 by the Commercial Court of Kyiv in the case no. 910/14972/17, the judge effectively applied a five-year non-use grace period, as provided for under the Association Agreement with the EU (Art. 198), and rejected the non-use cancellation action, which was based on the…
The IP-related provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, signed and ratified by Ukraine in 2014, came into force on September 1, 2017. New rules regulating the non-use grace period for trademarks were thereby introduced. Where the existing trademark law provides for a 3-year non-use grace period, Article 198 of the Agreement sets forth the 5-year…
Just as with any other violation of law, domain name and trademark squatting will be discouraged or encouraged depending on the efficiency of legal protection given to legitimate IP rights holders. When legal remedies are not available or are not effective, bad faith trademark and domain name applications will increase substantially, prompting legitimate right holders…
The Russian IP Court was a welcome addition to the Russian court system back in July 2013. It’s recent decisions seem to collide with Russian legislation regulating what is and what is not a trademark infringement, as well as, with established practice. Different definitions A trademark infringement can incur civil, administrative or criminal liability under…
The Administrative Instruction (AI) No. 08/2016, effective as of July 4, 2016 in Kosovo, relates to the accelerated examination of trademark applications, which is available if there has been an alleged infringement of trademark rights. When requesting such examination, the applicant must indicate the trademark filing details and submit: • Copy of the trademark application…
Kosovo PTO requires an original PoA for every filing, as of a couple of weeks ago. One would have to dispose of an unlimited number of PoAs signed in advance in order to make effective filings without delay. Also, this practice took immediate effect and delayed all new filings, since no one was prepared for…
A store in Ljubljana (Slovenia) was selling genuine Levi’s® trademarked goods intended only for the US market. The store was buying the goods online in the USA by providing payment details of the owner’s American home address (he is a US citizen residing in SLO) and by having goods delivered to an address in the…
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…
