A recent decision by the General Court deals with the weight of figurative elements in the overall impression of a sign. Facts The applicant applied for the registration of the following sign as an EU trademark for ‘publication of printed matter for advertising purposes’ (class 35) and for ‘entertainment services’ in class 41: The intervener…

As expected, in its decision of 21 December 2022 (T-44/22), the General Court (GC) upheld the refusal of the packaging design shown above on the right as a trademark for tobacco products in class 34, agreeing with the EUIPO that it would take unfair advantage of the reputation of the Marlboro rooftop mark. The trademark…

In a recent decision (T-726/21), the General Court (“GC”) confirmed that Rolex SA (“Rolex”) could not prevent the Danish fashion brand “Junk de Luxe” (owned by the company PWT A/S) from registering a trademark for their logo depicting a crown. The contested sign was among others filed for goods covering clothing, footwear and headgear in…

A judgment of the General Court demonstrates the controversial and problematic nature of retail services marks. The ALDI/ALDIANO Case The case concerns Aldi, the discount chain. An Aldi entity (in the following “Aldi”) filed an application for the declaration of invalidity against the EUTM ALDIANO, registered for “alcoholic beverages (except beers)” (class 33). Aldi relied…

As expected, frankly wished for, and previously reported on this blog (see here), the EUIPO appealed the General Court’s Ape Tees decision (T-281/21) to the Court of Justice. The Court allowed this appeal to proceed on 16 November 2022, recognising that the appeal raises issues relating to the fundamental principles of “unity, consistency and development…

https://www.top-fashion.sk/moda/made-in-czech-slovakia/5521-nehera-nekonvencna-moda-so-silnym-pribehom https://nehera.com/en Vintage marks – marks that only live on in people’s memories, but not on the market – face the challenge that trademarks that are not used can be cancelled. This conundrum has already been addressed in the earlier post on the CJEU Testarossa judgment. One such vintage mark that gave rise to a…

  In two parallel decisions of 19 October 2022, the General Court confirmed the cancellation of the figurative “Lío” marks as shown above registered in the name of a German individual (let’s call him B) on grounds of bad faith (T‑466/21 and T‑467/21), confirming the EUIPO Fifth Board of Appeal on all points. The facts…

                                          Readers might recall an earlier article (see here) discussing the positions of the General Court (GC) and the EUIPO’s Boards of Appeal (BoA) regarding (dis)similarity between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. By way of a…

The UK finally said bye-bye to the EU, but for how long will UK-based rights still matter in deciding EUTM-related controversies? This is the subject of two recent decisions by the General Court, i.e.  the Basmati case, T‑342/20, decided on October 6, 2021, and the subsequent APE TEES case, T‑281/21, decided on March 16, 2022. In…