The Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest Court within the EU.
The EU legislation does not provide for a definition of the concept of bad faith, but the EU case law in course of years has developed a number of criteria which offer guidance in assessing when a trademark was filed in bad faith. In the latest bad faith case, Koton Mağazacilik Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ…
On 16 October 2019, the long-awaited opinion of Advocate General Tanchev was handed down in the case of Sky Plc & Ots v SkyKick UK Ltd & Anr (Case C-371/18). The opinion is couched in terms of public importance and redressing the balance between the monopolistic nature of trade mark rights and the importance of…
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…
Traditionally, ‘gömböc’ has been the name of a kind of Hungarian food specialty, also called ‘disznósajt’ (‘pork-cheese’), similar to the Scottish haggis: pig’s stomach filled with leftovers. In a folk tale, the gömböc devours the members of an entire family one after the other, until the youngest son slits it open from the inside with…
As reported earlier by this blog, there is a discussion in Germany whether an infringer who has received an injunction has to actively recall the products. And the German recall-saga continues, as the Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Düsseldorf has just recently decided in an unfair competition matter that the obligation to cease and desist…
In law, perhaps one of the most famous aphorisms is “I know it when I see it”, which Justice Potter Stewart used to describe his threshold test for obscenity (in Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964)). The CJEU, in case C‑310/17, delivered a decision on copyright which in a way confirms this aphorism and…
In what has been considered a surprising decision (see for example previous comments in this blog here), the CJEU has recently held that the proprietor of a mark is entitled to oppose a third party which, without the proprietor’s consent, removes the sign from products and affixes other signs in its place, with a view…
This case is about the genuine use of shape marks. M J Quinlan & Associates PTY Ltd. of Australia own a 1999 registration for the shape of a kangaroo. The mark is protected for potato snacks and potato crisps. The plaintiff owns or owned a patent and design rights to the kangaroo-shaped crisps which were…
In BASIC NET SpA vs EUIPO, (case C-547/17 of Sept. 6, 2018), shortly after the recent Nestlè/Mondelez KIT KAT case (C‑84/17P, C-85/17 P and C-95/17 P; see ‘CJEU on the Kit Kat shape and acquired distinctiveness of EU trade marks for shapes’ in this blog), the CJEU again tackled the issue of how and where…
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 June, July and August. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright…
