Actions which impinge upon the monopoly granted by an Intellectual Property right are considered infringements.
Being a fashion company is not easy, in two ways. First, you have to be careful what to print on your clothing, even when this is meant as decorative artwork. On the other hand, you have to be watchful that your trademark is not printed on products of competitors, under the pretense of – the…
We all know that acquiescence is an absolute defense against infringement which occurs when a proprietor of an earlier mark has acquiesced, for a period of five successive years, to the use of a later registered trademark while being aware of such use. However, neither EU nor Italian (or, to our knowledge, any other national) trademark…
The Spanish Supreme Court has held that there is no risk of confusion between the word trade mark “Toro” (owned by Osborne Group, S.A., the notorious beverage company) and the word trade mark “Badtoro” (owned by Jordi Nogués, S.L., and filed for goods and services in classes 25 and 35 – relating to clothing-). Firstly,…
The UK Court of Appeal’s (Criminal Division) (CoA) judgment in R v C & Ors [2016] EWCA Crim 1617 provides a positive result for brand owners tackling the thorny issue of grey goods. Here, the CoA held that selling grey goods can constitute a criminal offence under s.92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA)….
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…
The Czech Supreme Court has recently confirmed that it is an act of unfair competition to file a take-down notice to a social media network claiming intellectual property infringement while omitting further relevant information. The court ordered the defendant to make a submission to the social media network withdrawing the take-down notice and to pay…
On 15 July 2016 the PI judge in the District Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, rendered a decision in a banana case between competitors Chiquita and Fyffes International about a recently introduced new brand of Chiquita. The decision confirmed that descriptive elements cannot automatically be disregarded if these elements form a conceptual whole with…
The Administrative Instruction (AI) No. 08/2016, effective as of July 4, 2016 in Kosovo, relates to the accelerated examination of trademark applications, which is available if there has been an alleged infringement of trademark rights. When requesting such examination, the applicant must indicate the trademark filing details and submit: • Copy of the trademark application…
