The body of law drawn from the precedents set by earlier decisions.
Amazon’s internal search engine has already been the subject of a decision by the High Court (England and Wales) made just over two years ago (2014, EWHC 181, ch). The claimant was the proprietor of the LUSH trademark, used (inter alia) for bath additives. After the trademark was entered as the search term, Amazon exclusively…
The Austrian Supreme Court (short “the Court”) denied a motion for a preliminary injunction (short “PI”) against the use of the mark “Duff (BEER)” based on the Claimant’s EUTM “Duff”, since the EUTM could be declared invalid on the basis of Defendant’s earlier German trademark rights (decision of 27.01.2016, 4 Ob 183/15p – DUFF Beer)….
Due to the variety of economic agents operating on the Portuguese market, some judicial disputes frequently arise regarding the registration rights derived from trademarks and trade names legally constituted. When these situations occur there is a collision of registration rights. The Lisbon Court of Appeal has recently dealt with one case in which the holder…
In the Stockholm District Court judgment of March 22, 2016, the UK company Textilis, Ltd (‘Textilis’) was found infringing, amongst others, the Swedish company Svenskt Tenn Aktiebolag’s (‘Svenskt Tenn’) figurative EUTM ‘Manhattan’ (shown below). The case concerned two questions, namely whether (a) there was infringement in Sweden and (b) the trade mark is valid. This case relates…
The general rule in German opposition proceedings is that each party bears its own costs. But what are the exceptions? A recent decision by the Federal Patent Court shows once more how difficult it is to obtain a decision ordering one party to bear the costs of another (decision of the Federal Patent Court of…
The UK Court of Appeal recently upheld the High Court’s decision that the use of ‘glee’ by Twentieth Century Fox (‘Fox’) as the name of its comedy TV series infringed an earlier trade mark registration for THE GLEE CLUB. So called ‘wrong way round’ confusion played a central role in this. The claimant (and respondent…
The Spanish Supreme Court recently had to consider the likelihood of confusion between the representation of a lila mop registered as a two-dimensional trade mark and another party’s actual product, again, a lila mop. The signs at issue were the following: Trademarks owned by the plaintiff Defendant’s use The Court rejected the…
The Lisbon Court of Appeal has recently confirmed a decision – debatable, as we will further develop – from the IP Court. In this matter, a wine company owns a trademark “QUINTA DE PANCAS”, which refers to a wine producing. The bottles in which these wines are commercialized show an image of a manor, the…
On March 3, the Swedish Court of Patent Appeals (‘PBR’) delivered a judgment on the effect of a reputed EUTM in a single member state. PBR held that even if the EUTM ‘SKY’ et al were extensively used and had proven reputation in the UK and Ireland, and therefore in the EU, no recognition of…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a trial court’s ruling that JBLU, Inc. violated the Tariff Act of 1930 by importing jeans that were not properly marked with their country of origin (JBLU, Inc. v. United States, March 2, 2016, Moore, K.). Because the trial court erred in deferring to the…
