District court correctly held that trademark owner failed to raise genuine factual issue as to secondary meaning of the asserted mark. A federal district court correctly found that a non-profit corporation that promotes and helps run the annual Fiestas de le Calle San Sebastian festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico lacked evidence to sustain its…
Introduction Defendant Masking is a strategy used in India by plaintiffs in IPR suits to avoid detection of the matter in the Cause List by masking the ‘main defendant’ with the other defendants. The Cause List in Indian jurisprudence are schedules of cases to be heard by the courts on the following day(s). It gives…
We need all the help we can get to fight counterfeit goods. Counterfeit goods are produced and distributed by organised criminal groups and this crime represents as much as 2.5 per cent of world trade, or USD 461 billion. For more information see Europol’s webpage here: https://www.europol.europa.eu/crime-areas-and-trends/crime-areas/intellectual-property-crime/counterfeiting-and-product-piracy. A Danish researcher and associate professor, Thomas Just…
Foreign companies continuing to protect their IP rights in Venezuela face yet more changes related to payment of government fees. These new changes aim to circumvent the US sanctions being monitored and regulated by the US Department of the Treasury and will allow companies to once again pay government fees to the Venezuelan Patent Office…
The mark owner had sent a cease-and-desist letter to the defendant—a competing seller of equipment to the cosmetics industry—more than four years before filing suit, establishing that it knew of the infringement at that time. Although cosmetics equipment company A.C.T. 898 Products, Inc. (“ACT”) convinced a jury that competitor W.S. Industries, Inc. (“WSI”) willfully infringed…
Cour de cassation, Chambre commerciale, March 27, 2019, Appeal No. T 17-28.213 The French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) overturned the judgment of the Paris Court of appeals (here) which had denied similarity between goods and services on the ground that they were only indirectly related, because the Court of appeals should have examined whether…
District court properly “looked through” an arbitration agreement between two groups competing over rights to the name to determine that it had subject matter jurisdiction under federal trademark law to adjudicate the dispute. A federal district court did not err in confirming an arbitration award pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. §9,…
The Uruguayan Criminal Court of First Instance Specialized in Organized Crime has ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites that retransmit sporting events illegally, thereby infringing the copyright to this content (Fox International Channels v. Puerto 80 Projects SLU). This is an important judicial precedent in Uruguay where no such blocking order had been…
In 2018 Argentina unexpectedly amended the Trademark Law for the first time since 1981. The changes are promising as the Argentine government aimed to expedite proceedings and empower the Patent and Trademark Office (the “PTO”). However, it has been a bumpy ride so far, so this is what you need to know about the changes…
With decision n. 482 of 2019 the Italian Court of Torino decided on whether the beauty and the history of a car may be reasons to deserve copyright protection. The case regards the company Tecnomodel S.r.l. producer of miniature cars, including the models in scale 1/18 and 1/43 of the cars Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ and…
