A trade mark is a distinctive sign which indicates the origin of goods and services, usually refers to a registered trade marks
Yesterday, 2 July 2020, the European Commission announced that it will refer Romania to the CJEU for not implementing the Trade Mark Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/2436) – see here. While the deadline to transpose the Trade Mark Directive is long overdue – 14 January 2019, Romania is yet to proceed with this, making it the…
Should a registered EU trademark which consists of a descriptive term (in one of the EU languages) be capable to prevent registration of a later EUTM which is fanciful but happens to contain the same letter string, solely because in some EU countries knowledge of that language cannot be adequately proven? What if that language…
The UK High Court has laid out its ruling following CJEU’s decision on SkyKick. To recap, the CJEU ruled that overly broad specifications will not automatically render a registered mark invalid and that the lack of intention to use the mark at the time of its application will not necessarily result in bad faith. What…
CJEU’s recent preliminary ruling in Gömböc Case C-237/19 highlights assessment criteria regarding the registrability of shapes of goods as trademarks. The shape of the Gömböc was refused trademark protection in Hungary because the sign allegedly consisted ‘exclusively of the shape of goods which is necessary to obtain a technical result’ (in respect of toys) and…
Red Bull GmbH v Big Horn UK Limited & Ors [2020] EWHC 124 (Ch) This case is an interesting commentary on the route that rights holders can pursue in order to challenge lookalike products. Historically, proprietors of well-known brands, particularity in the FMCG market, have found it difficult to succeed in an Article 9(2)(b) claim…
(Updated as of 21.05.2020 due to further changes in legislation and to provide clarifications) Austria, as many other countries, adopted legal measures to extend deadlines with a view to the COVID-19 crisis. As the provisions are all but crystal clear, this is to give you an overview of which running deadlines in trademark (and other…
As has already been reported on this blog (see here), the Court of Justice has annulled the decision of the General Court saying that the refusal of EUTM application FACK JU GÖHTE for being (allegedly) contrary to accepted principles of morality was incorrect (judgment of 26 February 2020, C- 240/18P). This refusal raised a number…
On 25 February 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have officially withdrawn their trade mark applications for the words “SUSSEX ROYAL” and “SUSSEX ROYAL THE FOUNDATION OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF SUSSEX”. The couple further announced that they will stop using the brand from Spring 2020. The couple launched their brand last April…
“What the FACK just happened?!”, some thought, when the CJEU delivered its judgment on the registrability of the trademark FACK JU GÖHTE on 27 February 2020. In case you are unfamiliar with the case, FACK JU is a phonetic transcription in German of “fuck you” and GÖHTE alludes to the late German writer Goethe. Following…
In Shaggy’s 2000 hit, the main character is caught cheating on his girlfriend and defends himself by simply denying the facts and repeating the phrase: “It wasn’t me!”. Contract manufacturers caught infringing intellectual property rights do not generally deny having manufactured the given infringing goods. However, they often claim that they are not liable, since…
