Nepalese businesses have been exploiting well-known brands such as KFC, Center Fresh, Adidas, Nike, etc. In Nepal a restaurant named KKFC resembles the American fast food chain KFC; a Nepalese brand named Center Fillz closely resembles Centre Fresh; and, knockoffs of Adidas and Nike can be found. This is due to the absence of effective…
On 14 January 2019, on the date of the deadline, the German Trademark Modernization Act entered into force (with the wonderfully uniquely German name of “Markenrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz” – short: “MaMoG”). The Trademark Modernization Act implements the mandatory and several optional provisions contained in the revised EU Trade Mark Directive 2015/2436 of 16 December 2015 in Germany….
The Board erred by disregarding evidence of the lender’s longtime use of its mark in the same location as a similar registered mark, without consumer confusion. Because this was evidence that confusion was unlikely, the Board’s error was not harmless. Case date: 14 January 2019 Case number: No. 2017-2620 Court: United States Court of Appeals, Federal…
In a plenary vote that took place on January 17, 2019, the lower house of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) adopted a bill amending the IP Law, the main purpose of which is – not a big surprise these days – to transpose the EU Trademark Directive 2015/2436 to the Polish trademark system (with just a…
After a Christmas full of German chocolate, French wine and Italian coffee, the UK has now turned its attention once more to its membership within the EU, and the impending lack thereof. With yesterday’s vote, Parliament voted against the deal proposed by the Prime Minister, to govern the British exit of the European Union. The…
It is longstanding practice in fashion to designate certain products not only by illegible article numbers, but by names. Many times male or female personal names are chosen. When there is a broad range of products, many names are needed by a fashion company. Many times these will not be needed for a long time,…
As already noted by fellow bloggers in respect to a number of countries, the new Trademarks Directive [Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of 16 December 2015], short “TMD” also required amendments to the Austrian Trademark Law Act. Austria opted for an implementation in two steps: the first set of amendments already entered into force (mostly) on 01…
The Royal Decree-Law (link) implementing the European Trade Marks Directive 2015/2436 was published in the Official State Gazette on December 27. The main part of this legislation amending the Spanish Trade Mark Law will come into force on January 14, 2019. The main points to be highlighted are as follows: Competence of the Spanish Patent…
Not for the first time this year, have we seen the granting of copyright protection on a project of interior furnishing. Following the Court of Milan’s ruling which recognised copyright protection of Kiko’s concept stores, the Court of Venice was also called to pronounce – in the context of an interim proceedings – on the…
The International Trade Commission (ITC) erred when it reassessed the sufficiency of Laerdal Medical Corp.’s trade dress claims against defaulting respondents after instituting an investigation of the claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held. Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. §1337, unambiguously requires the…
