The body of law drawn from the precedents set by earlier decisions.
Combining trademarks with further elements or sub-brands is quite popular. A recent decision of the German Federal Supreme reminds once more what to watch out for if you do not want to lose your trademark rights (decision of 11 May 2017 in Case I ZB 6/16). The owner of the German word mark registration for…
The Regional High Court of Frankfurt rendered an interim injunction on appeal, which may have a great impact on the question if and to which extent the owner of an earlier trade mark can take action against the use of a colliding trade name or company name in Germany (judgment of 1 June 2017, 6…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board did not err in refusing to register the trademark FIRST TUESDAY for lottery games and services, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled. According to the court, the mark described a feature of the applicant’s goods and services: scratch-off lottery tickets that the applicant (the…
Can the use of “KHG” infringe the name rights of “Karl-Heinz Grasser”? Former Austrian Minister of Finance Karl-Heinz Grasser is widely known as KHG. After his term, which ended in 2007, he was accused of bribery in various cases. The accusations and investigations gained great public attention. In 2015, the defendants, a journalist who publishes…
The Swedish company producing high quality beds Hästens Sängar AB (hereafter “Hästens”) has in several jurisdictions (DK, EU, US, SE, NO, CH, FI, ES etc.) applied for the mark (hereafter “the figurative mark”) or variations thereof. Recently, in T-359/12 (C-363/15) Louis Vuitton Malletier’s mark was refused by the Court. For this reason it was evident…
In the recent decision W.F. Gözze Frottierweberei Gmbh, Wolfgang Gözze GmbH v Verein Bremer Baumwollbörse, case C-689/15, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) analyzes an issue which the EUTMR rules do not clearly resolve, i.e. whether or not a licensed EUTM registration may be invalidated if the owner fails to carry out quality controls on licensee/licensees’ products. The dispute arose between a German cotton textiles industry association (the…
Lanham Act claims for false advertising and trademark infringement brought by Sausage company Parks, asserting its PARKS mark for sausage against Tyson Foods and Hillshire Brands Company (collectively, Tyson), were without merit, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has decided, affirming a ruling by a federal district court. Parks did not state a valid…
Where the marks differ in only a single additional letter at the end of one of the marks, can the resulting similarity be “neutralized” by the conceptual differences? The German Federal Patent Court decided on 19 June 2017 that the opposing mark “Combit” and the attacked mark were overall dissimilar and that, even if there…
CeramTec GmbH is the owner of the color trade mark IR 1‘109‘076 claiming protection for a shade of pink (Pantone 677, see image). At the beginning of 2012, CeramTec applied for the extension of protection to Switzerland for said trade mark in connection with goods of class 10: “femoral head spheres, acetabular cup, all the…
In April, the Oslo District Court partially relied on EUIPO Guidelines in finding that this trade mark is distinctive (judgment of 11. April 2017, case 16-135037TVI-OTIR/07).The mark had been rejected by the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) and the Board of Appeal as being descriptive and non-distinctive for “ammunition, projectiles and cartridges”. Norway is…
