The Swiss Federal Supreme Court decided that the customisation of branded items on behalf of the watch-owner does not violate trademark law In its Judgement of 19 January 2024, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court followed German case law in the area of the customisation of branded products on request of the product’s owner and held…
The start of 2024 marked a significant change in the UK legal landscape post-Brexit – the entry into force of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (‘REULA’). This is the first of two blogs looking at REULA, and at the UK Courts’ approach to EU law following the UK’s departure from the…
On 18 January 2024, in case C-367/21 (still no English version) the CJEU ruled again on the exhaustion of EU trade mark rights (following its five rulings of 17 November 2022 including C-175/21 Harman International Industries, C-224/20 Merck Sharp & Dohme, and C‑204/20 Bayer Intellectual Property). The Polish IP Court had referred questions to the…
A news publication could not rely on First Amendment protection for its use of a mark even though it made no attempt to parody the original. A news publication named with a common English language word could not invoke the First Amendment to protect it against a trademark claim against the owner of that mark—even…
All trademark news that you might have missed last month in one convenient overview. Read up on the latest news reported by the Kluwer IP Reporter. Assignment Center replaces EPAS and ETAS The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the replacement of the Electronic Patent Assignment System (EPAS) and Electronic Trademark Assignment System…
Will the CJEU take a deep dive into the right of possession? The European Court of Justice will have to deal with this question following a reference from the German Federal Supreme Court (Decision of 23 January 2024 in Case I ZR 205/22). The detailed questions which the Court will have to answer are: …
The Greek Supreme Court has recently handed down its ruling in a cassation appeal concerning the shape of biscuits and their protection as unregistered trademarks (no 659/2023), confirming the findings of the Athens Court of Appeal. The biscuits, although quite well-known, were considered non-distinctive, as was the image of two spikes of wheat embossed on…
For some time, brand owners and practitioners in Turkey have been waiting for three things to be moved forward before TÜRKPATENT, namely (1) administrative non-use cancellation proceedings, (2) an updated 2024 PTO fee schedule and (3) a new edition of entry exam to the profession. However, TÜRKPATENT has been remarkably silent. Here is a summary…
We UK lawyers view with interest the developments in the “Brexit cases”, resulting in appeals to the CJEU in 3 cases, as discussed in various previous posts on this blog, the latest being the summary (here) of the AG opinion in the first case, BASMATI. The BASMATI case, and the related “Brexit cases” APE TEES…
The Fifth Circuit also added non-genuine bezels to the district court’s injunction to make it consistent with the district court’s other findings. In a trademark infringement case involving refurbished Rolex watches, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment insofar as it concluded that BeckerTime, the refurbisher, infringed Rolex’s…
