Since 1 April 2020 most cancellation actions in France have become administrative proceedings and must be filed with the French trade mark office (“Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle”). Only invalidity actions based on earlier copyrights, designs, surnames, pseudonyms etc. remain judicial proceedings. These new administrative proceedings are the result of the implementation of Directive EU 2015/2426…
The Austrian courts recently had the opportunity to provide some clarifications as to when a geographical indication, which is not protected as such under EU legislation, may be registered as a trademark, relying on the principles established more than 20 years ago in the “Chiemsee” preliminary rulings of the Court of Justice of the EU…
In Denmark – as in the EU – it is possible to overcome an absolute ground for refusal based on non-distinctive character of the mark applied for if the applicant is able to provide proof that the mark applied for has acquired distinctive character through use prior to the application date, see Article 7(3) EUTMR…
On 19 April 2018, the CJEU handed down its judgment in the matter Peek & Cloppenburg (PUC), a referral from the German Supreme Court in a litigation between two German companies of that same name (one of which runs under the name of Peek & Cloppenburg [PuC] “North”, the other “West”) (C‑148/17). The question to…
