A trade mark is a distinctive sign which indicates the origin of goods and services, usually refers to a registered trade marks
The Kluwer Trademark Blog wishes all readers very Happy Holidays and of a very good new year 2021 (not only in relative terms!). Christmas is upon us – only two more days. Children are getting excited unless of course they have already received their presents, for example in the Netherlands where Sinta Claas brought them…
In the High Court case of Sazerac Brands, LLC & Ors v Liverpool Gin Distillery Limited & Ors [2020] EWHC 2424 (Ch), conducted under the Shorter Trial Scheme, the Defendants’ use of its AMERICAN EAGLE sign was found to have infringed the Claimants’ registered rights in its mark, EAGLE RARE. The First Defendant’s UK trade…
A recent decision of the CJEU in a patent-related matter questions the former common understanding in Hungary: requesting an interim injunction for trademark infringement comes with a risk. The common understanding based on Article 9(7) of the Enforcement Directive was that, if the court orders an interim injunction which is later lifted, the plaintiff shall…
Following the inspirational blogs by Agnieszka Sztoldman and Katharina Schmid’s on slogans here and here, I would like to share some fairly recent decisions from Norway. They show that there is “hope in a hanging snore” for the protection of promotional slogans in Norway. It begins with the outdoor apparel slogan NEVER STOP EXPLORING. The…
When I started writing this article, the news came out that the UK and the EU had reached an agreement on the Northern Ireland border checks, so the UK would remove controversial clauses from the Internal Market Bill that were breaching the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. Last night, Boris Johnson met Ursula von der…
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 September, October and November. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright…
Imagine you file an application for a figurative mark, and EUIPO publishes it. But then your application is opposed by a third party. So while you’re fighting that battle, you file just the word portion of your figurative mark and get a registration. You also file, two further figurative marks containing the same word mark,…
The Court of Justice has said that reputation and enhanced distinctive character are not relevant to the assessment of similarity of the signs under Article 8(1)(b) of the Regulation and should only be considered in the assessment of likelihood of confusion. This is important because if the marks are not held to be similar, there…
We know that save in “exceptional” cases, colours do not initially have a distinctive character, although they may be capable of acquiring such character as the result of the use made of them. But what if the colour is unusual with regard to the products it designates – does this help to be included in…
Background In 2016, Jaguar Land Rover (“JLR”) applied to register four UK trade mark applications for the shape marks of the Land Rover Defender 90 and Land Rover Defender 110 vehicles, in Classes 9, 12, 14, 28 and 37: All four applications were successfully opposed by Ineos Industries Holdings Limited (“Ineos”) in respect of most…
