A trade mark is a distinctive sign which indicates the origin of goods and services, usually refers to a registered trade marks
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,…
In the Stockholm District Court judgment of March 22, 2016, the UK company Textilis, Ltd (‘Textilis’) was found infringing, amongst others, the Swedish company Svenskt Tenn Aktiebolag’s (‘Svenskt Tenn’) figurative EUTM ‘Manhattan’ (shown below). The case concerned two questions, namely whether (a) there was infringement in Sweden and (b) the trade mark is valid. This case relates…
A lifestyle and hospitality company well known for its luxurious beach clubs and hotels, has recently succeeded in registering EPICUREAN LOUNGE word mark in the European Union. While the OHIM examiner initially refused the application on the grounds of descriptiveness, an appeal reversed the examiner’s decision. In September 2014, Nikki Beach filed a community trademark application…
In September 2015 the German Bundesgerichtshof (BGH), Germany’s highest civil court, decided questions regarding the conversion of a Community Trademark into a national German trademark. The outcome was painful. The ruling greatly weakened the Community trademark system. The case was referred back to the appeal court (OLG Düsseldorf) which will hopefully refer the case to…
Whether use of a trade mark in just one Member State is sufficient or not to support the validity of a CTM is an issue practitioners and Courts have struggled with since the CTM system began. The issue was addressed by the CJEU in their decision in ONEL back in 2012. Yet MINT, one of the first UK IPO…
OHIM has released Communication 2/2016 of the President clarifying that the new fee regime will apply to all CTMs (then EUTMs) that expire on or after 23 March 2016 – even where renewal is requested before that date. All CTMs expiring before that date are subject to the current renewal fees. The new EU Trademark…
