A permanent injunction preventing an ex-band member from touring as “The Commodores featuring Thomas McClary” extended extrajudicially to European performances. In a long-running dispute in which Commodores Entertainment Corp. (CEC) has repeatedly prevailed in its efforts to stop former Commodores member Thomas McClary from using the “Commodores” name in musical performances, the U.S. Court of…
The existence of a contractual relationship between the two parties was not a prerequisite to the power of the district court to adjudicate the breach of contract claim. Whether the assignment of a trademark for a brand of children’s products was valid was a question of contractual standing rather than Article III standing, the U.S….
The Swiss Federal Administrative Court (BVGer) had to decide the likelihood of confusion between CRUNCH, a trademark of the Société des produits Nestlé SA and TIFFANY CRUNCH N CREAM, a trademark of the International Foodstuffs Co. LLC (B-6222/2019). Nestlé had failed to cancel the opposed trademark before the Institute for Intellectual Property (IPI) and appealed…
It has been several months since our last publication on Brexit and the world is very different since then due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As for BREXIT, this could be another pandemic for several industries as it remains unclear whether there will be a deal or no-deal exit at the end of the transition period,…
Seller’s appeal of district court’s judgment against it was frivolous because its arguments had virtually no likelihood of success, and the appeal seemingly was pursued for purposes of delay. In a trademark infringement suit between the maker of the dietary supplement Prevagen against an Internet seller for the unauthorized and unlawful sale of Prevagen products,…
Obtaining the status of a well-known trademark in Russia enables a right holder to prohibit any third parties from the unauthorized use of similar marks for whatever goods and services without any time limitations and makes them free from payments of renewal fees. However, although a brand could be very popular among Russian customers and…
The German Federal Supreme Court today once more decided on cancellation claims against German trademark registrations for square-shaped packaging for chocolate products (Decision of 23 July 2020 in Cases I ZB 42/19 und I ZB 43/19). According to the Court’s press release, it confirmed a decision by the Federal Patent Court which rejected the…
Since 1 April 2020 most cancellation actions in France have become administrative proceedings and must be filed with the French trade mark office (“Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle”). Only invalidity actions based on earlier copyrights, designs, surnames, pseudonyms etc. remain judicial proceedings. These new administrative proceedings are the result of the implementation of Directive EU 2015/2426…
While it is appropriate for a district court to adopt the findings of fact of a magistrate judge’s report and recommendations when deciding a motion for a preliminary injunction, it cannot do so when deciding a motion for summary judgment. A district court’s summary judgment order ruling that a vacation tour company violated the Anti-Cybersquatting…
Yesterday, 2 July 2020, the European Commission announced that it will refer Romania to the CJEU for not implementing the Trade Mark Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/2436) – see here. While the deadline to transpose the Trade Mark Directive is long overdue – 14 January 2019, Romania is yet to proceed with this, making it the…
