The body of law drawn from the precedents set by earlier decisions.
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…
Cour de cassation, Chambre commerciale, March 27, 2019, Appeal No. T 17-28.213 The French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) overturned the judgment of the Paris Court of appeals (here) which had denied similarity between goods and services on the ground that they were only indirectly related, because the Court of appeals should have examined whether…
District court properly “looked through” an arbitration agreement between two groups competing over rights to the name to determine that it had subject matter jurisdiction under federal trademark law to adjudicate the dispute. A federal district court did not err in confirming an arbitration award pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. §9,…
The Uruguayan Criminal Court of First Instance Specialized in Organized Crime has ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites that retransmit sporting events illegally, thereby infringing the copyright to this content (Fox International Channels v. Puerto 80 Projects SLU). This is an important judicial precedent in Uruguay where no such blocking order had been…
On 12 June 2015, four Montevideo stores were detected selling perfumes that used trademarks and imitated the general appearance of trademarked products without authorization. The perfumes were: “HUGO BOOS, LOCASTE, SPORT HILFIGER, STORY OF FLOWER, POISON, CHANGL, ANGEL OU DEMON, J`ADOTE, J`ABEA”, and inside the stores posters advertised “COCO CHANEL PERFUMES and FLOWER KENZO”. In…
In a recent decision[1] the Calcutta High Court (“Court”) upheld the use of the word ‘Darjeeling’ for the 5-star hotel lounge operated by ITC Limited (“ITC”). The ‘Darjeeling lounge’ was introduced by ITC in January 2003. The plaintiff Tea Board, a state agency established to promote cultivation and trade of tea, held registrations for ‘Darjeeling’…
The Polish Constitutional Tribunal issued a long-awaited judgment in December 2018 regarding a claim for information under the Polish Industrial Property Act (case no. SK 19/16). It ruled that a trademark owner cannot claim for information against an auction portal to disclose information about entities selling goods and about the quantity and prices paid for…
Earlier this year, the Civil Court of Santiago[1] ruled in favour of Catalina Abbott, a famous Chilean artist, issuing a historic judgment in relation to the protection of her moral and economic rights as an author. The ruling established that the conduct of a local vineyard regarding one of Abbott’s works caused moral and economic…
With decision of 25th February 2019, the German Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) has ruled on the registrability of a celebrity name for inter alia publications in class 16. The Bundespatentgericht is the appeals court for decisions of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA). Franziska van Almsick, one of the most successful swimmers of recent…
