A licensor’s failure to disclose in discovery an agreement acknowledging that a third party owned the mark was properly sanctioned. Two beach merchandise retailers asserting rights to use the mark “WINGS” in connection with their stores will have to go to trial to sort out their competing rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond…
On 22 July 2019, the Second Board of Appeal at EUIPO issued a decision partially invalidating the EUTM ‘MONOPOLY’. The reason for the invalidation was that the Board considered the EUTM proprietor to have been in bad faith when it filed the application for the EUTM insofar as it included goods and services already covered…
Some (among whom, the truly yours) wondered, when in late June the US Supreme Court held unconstitutional the Lanham Act provision (15 U. S. C. §1052(a)) prohibiting registration of trademarks consisting of or comprising immoral or scandalous matter because it discriminates on the basis of viewpoint and therefore violates the free speech clause[1], whether freedom…
Are e-commerce websites allowed to sell products of companies engaged in direct selling? The Delhi High Court of India, in its judgment of 8 July 2019, here, held platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, 1MG and Healthkart guilty of tortious interference with the contractual relationship of the plaintiffs with their direct sellers. The court applied…
The USPTO properly refused to register ARTISAN NY for clothing because, like the registered mark ARTESANO NEW YORK CITY, the proposed mark conveyed the impression of clothing made by skilled tradespersons in New York. Substantial evidence supported the USPTO’s refusal to register the mark ARTISAN NY, for clothing, on likelihood of confusion grounds, the U.S….
The UK government is in the process of selecting a new leader for the reigning Conservative party, all against the backdrop of the impending Brexit deadline (31 October 2019). The members of the Conservative party will vote for one of the two candidates, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, with a victor announced next week on…
For over five years, Canadian trademark practitioners have been preparing for Canada’s new trademark law. We have been advising clients, writing articles, attending seminars, reviewing new Regulations & Practice Notices, and updating our internal systems preparing for the most significant changes in one hundred and fifty years. After several delays, most sections of the new…
While the new EUTMR 2017/1001 deleted any reference to disclaimers – previously provided by Article 37(2) of EUTMR No. 207/2009 – both the EU Directive 2008/95 and the Recast Directive 2015/2436 neither allowed nor prohibited disclaimers at national level. Few Member States had disclaimers on their book (Sweden, Ireland and Latvia) and from Sweden the…
Trademark lawyer Verena von Bomhard moved to Spain in 1996 when her firm asked her to open up a branch near the then new OHIM in Alicante. She never looked back. ‘IP-law is just so tangible. I must say I loved it from day one.’ It was Spanish that got her into IP-law and a bit of…
Traditionally, ‘gömböc’ has been the name of a kind of Hungarian food specialty, also called ‘disznósajt’ (‘pork-cheese’), similar to the Scottish haggis: pig’s stomach filled with leftovers. In a folk tale, the gömböc devours the members of an entire family one after the other, until the youngest son slits it open from the inside with…
