A trade mark is a distinctive sign which indicates the origin of goods and services, usually refers to a registered trade marks
Just as with any other violation of law, domain name and trademark squatting will be discouraged or encouraged depending on the efficiency of legal protection given to legitimate IP rights holders. When legal remedies are not available or are not effective, bad faith trademark and domain name applications will increase substantially, prompting legitimate right holders…
On 17 May 2017, the Swedish Patent and Market Court (the “PMD”) decided a case whereby it held that Nestlé’s expansion of its cat food brand “PURINA felix” into Sweden infringed the reputed Swedish foodstuff trademark FELIX, and that the fact that PURINA felix was previously used and enjoyed recognition in another EU country did not…
In a decision of a Dutch District Court earlier this year[1], the American fast-food chain Wendy’s suffered a loss against a local Dutch snack restaurant, which bears the name WENDY’S. The trademark registration owned by the same snack restaurant blocks the American chain to enter the market. Although this case has similarities with the story…
Following the Court of Justice decision that “saved” the 2002 EU LAMBRETTA trademark from a decision of partial revocation for non-use rendered by the EUIPO Opposition Division[1], on 28 March 2017, the Italian Supreme Court ordered the revocation for non-use of three LAMBRETTA trademarks registered before the Italian Trademark Office in 1948, 1968 and 1969…
Two months ago I reported about the Draft of a new Trademark Act (Markenrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz) which was supposed to enter into force before the election for the next German Bundestag. Some of the relevant German associations commented in detail on the draft and proposed some well-grounded changes – i.e. the Markenverband, the GRUR, and the Bundesverband Deutscher…
The Russian IP Court was a welcome addition to the Russian court system back in July 2013. It’s recent decisions seem to collide with Russian legislation regulating what is and what is not a trademark infringement, as well as, with established practice. Different definitions A trademark infringement can incur civil, administrative or criminal liability under…
To ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs. Here are the top posts from March and April. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright Blog…
3-D Mark litigation is like life itself – you never know what you’re going to get. And for that reason, it’s all the more enjoyable when a 3-D registration prevails over a knock-off. A notorious trader of perfume imitations was marketing the following perfume bottle – apparently feeling safe about the plaintiff’s product shape, registered…
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. World of Warcraft takes place within the fantasy Warcraft world of Azeroth. Alone or together with others the player has to solve quests in order to level up and have more possibilities. Since some of these quests…
In a recent decision of the General Court of the European Union (General Court), the Italian fashion house Gucci (Guccio Gucci SpA) once again drew the shorter straw against permanent rival Guess (Guess? IP Holder LP). This judgment forms the most recent in a string of cases fought between the two companies throughout Europe,…
