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…
On 1 January 2019, the amendments to the Swedish Trademark Act enter into force. In many aspects, the implementation is straightforward and what anyone familiar with EU trademark law would expect. This includes the removal of the requirement for graphical representation, the possibility for the applicant to require an opponent to prove use of an…
For purposes of the Lanham Act’s fee-shifting provision, “exceptional” cases are those that stand out from others in the manner set forth for Patent Act fee awards in the Supreme Court’s holding in Octane Fitness, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City has held, joining several other circuit courts. The Second Circuit vacated…
The Regional High Court of Nuremberg rejected a request for an interim injunction in a trade mark case on appeal, considering that the defendant had already stopped the trade mark infringement at the time when the applicant (plaintiff) was seeking injunctive relief (judgment of 10 October 2018, 3 W 1932/18). The court decided that it…
Amendments to the Czech and Slovak Trademark Acts implementing the EU trademark reform of 2015 have been recently passed by the respective parliaments. The amendments will become effective on 1 January 2019 in Czechia and on 14 January 2019 in Slovakia. There are 3 major changes to be noted: 1) New definition of a trademark…
