The body of law drawn from the precedents set by earlier decisions.
On 29 July 2019, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) handed down a ruling that ended a six-year battle over the validity of trademark rights in the name of Red Bull to the combination of the colours blue and silver (EUTM nos. 9417668 and 2534774) (C‑124/18 P). The CJEU dismissed Red Bull’s appeal and confirmed…
A licensor’s failure to disclose in discovery an agreement acknowledging that a third party owned the mark was properly sanctioned. Two beach merchandise retailers asserting rights to use the mark “WINGS” in connection with their stores will have to go to trial to sort out their competing rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond…
Are e-commerce websites allowed to sell products of companies engaged in direct selling? The Delhi High Court of India, in its judgment of 8 July 2019, here, held platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, 1MG and Healthkart guilty of tortious interference with the contractual relationship of the plaintiffs with their direct sellers. The court applied…
The USPTO properly refused to register ARTISAN NY for clothing because, like the registered mark ARTESANO NEW YORK CITY, the proposed mark conveyed the impression of clothing made by skilled tradespersons in New York. Substantial evidence supported the USPTO’s refusal to register the mark ARTISAN NY, for clothing, on likelihood of confusion grounds, the U.S….
To ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs. Here are the top posts from April, May and June. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright…
Polish Supreme Court, Civil Chamber, 9 May 2019, Case No. I CSK 263/18 The Polish Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy) overturned the judgment of the Warsaw Court of Appeal (case no. I ACa 962/16) on the basis that courts should assess the overall similarity of trademarks, whether it is phonetic, graphical or conceptual. Conceptual differences not…
Sufficient evidence at trial supported finding that trade dress of iconic French press coffeemaker was nonfunctional; verdict against rival upheld. Bodum USA, Inc. (Bodum), which produces and sells what is recognized as an iconically designed houseware product, the Chambord French press coffeemaker, met its burden of proving at trial that the elements of the claimed…
District court correctly held that trademark owner failed to raise genuine factual issue as to secondary meaning of the asserted mark. A federal district court correctly found that a non-profit corporation that promotes and helps run the annual Fiestas de le Calle San Sebastian festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico lacked evidence to sustain its…
Introduction Defendant Masking is a strategy used in India by plaintiffs in IPR suits to avoid detection of the matter in the Cause List by masking the ‘main defendant’ with the other defendants. The Cause List in Indian jurisprudence are schedules of cases to be heard by the courts on the following day(s). It gives…
The mark owner had sent a cease-and-desist letter to the defendant—a competing seller of equipment to the cosmetics industry—more than four years before filing suit, establishing that it knew of the infringement at that time. Although cosmetics equipment company A.C.T. 898 Products, Inc. (“ACT”) convinced a jury that competitor W.S. Industries, Inc. (“WSI”) willfully infringed…
