In Copenhagen around one third of the workforce bike to work. That amounts to more than one million kilometers being pedaled every day. Next to the Dutch the Danes are the population in Europe that bike the most. For this reason it is only natural that conflicts should arise in Denmark between owners of trademarks…

To what extend can a business claim reputed trademark as a basis for infringement proceedings or for raising objections against another business’ trademark registration in Denmark? A recent judgement of the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court (the Court) between ECCO and EKKOfonden has given some further guidance on this matter, indicating that even in…

In the affordable luxury segment one finds the highest growth rate within the Class 14-goods at the moment. As a result we see a lot of new starts-ups in this business – one of them trying to stand out by riding on the coat-tails of the market leader in the affordable luxury segment: Pandora A/S….

In the latest judgement of the General Court (hereafter GC) on Geographical Indications (hereafter GIs or GI) T 510/15 TOSCORO (versus the GI TOSCANO) the mark applied for was declared partially invalid. In the European Union (hereafter EU) GIs for wine, spirits, agricultural products and foodstuffs are protected as sui generis intellectual property rights that…

Denmark: 3D-marks – so desirable and yet so hard to get Lately, there have been four interesting 3D-cases in Denmark based on absolute grounds. The first case is a decision by the Danish Board of Appal (hereafter called DBoA) which related to an application by Christian Louboutin for the following 3D mark under application number…

  In a decision dated 21 September, 2016 the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court decided that use of the name ‘Graceland Randers’ is an infringement of the reputed trademark ‘Graceland’ owned by GL SPE LLC, the official owner of the Elvis Presley trademarks. Graceland Randers                                                             Graceland Memphis http://memphismansion.dk/museum/)                              https://dk.pinterest.com/ The company owned by Henrik…

Royal Copenhagen, the Danish porcelain company, claimed infringement by Porsgrund AS (hereafter Porsgrund) as it considered the Norwegian porcelain dinner service company’s dinner service sets called ‘MaxiStrå blå’ to constitute a violation of Royal Copenhagen’s rights to the porcelain dinner service sets called ‘Blue Fluted Mega’. Royal Copenhagen claimed infringement under the Danish Trademark Act,…

LEGO, JENSEN and UTZON have in-common that they all are trademarks and last names at the same time. A decade ago the reputed producer of construction toys for children LEGO tried to prohibit Louise Lego Andersen – painter and gallery owner – from e.g. signing her paintings as “L. Lego” (see ruling V 150/03). LEGO…

A recent decision of the Danish Trademark and Patent Office (hereafter DKPTO) shows the narrow scope of protection of company names under Danish law. It is possible to base an opposition before EUIPO on Article 8 (4) EUTMR which include 1) non-registered trademarks and 2) other signs used in the course of trade. Other signs…

As a follow up to the previous blog by Gorrissen Federspiel “Denmark: Trademark rights established through use” published 13 April 2016 we will now discuss for how long use of such a mark can be discontinued without the holder losing his right. From the 1958 report it is apparent that the trademark right established through…