Plaintiff Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Inc. (“SMRI”) did not provide the jury with sufficient proof that its unregistered marks “Sturgis,” “Sturgis Motorcycle Rally,” and “Sturgis Rally & Races” marks were valid marks that acquired secondary meaning, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled, reversing a district court’s judgment that a gift…
The issue of whether domain registrars shall be liable for online infringements has been actively debated in Russia for the recent 3 years. Starting from a remarkable MMK vs. REG.RU case (А40-52455/2015), where the IP Court refused to apply the regime of information intermediaries. After several futile attempts, the IP Court’s recent decision in Azbuka…
On October 17, 2018 Canada legalized recreational cannabis, offering opportunities and challenges for businesses in this emerging field. Even before legalization, there was a notable increase in Canadian trademark filings covering cannabis products, services and related accessories. Unfortunately, many of these mark may never be legally used in Canada due to restrictions on brand use,…
I. Facts The Italian fashion house Furla SpA has obtained a recent victory in an opposition in China against a local competitor. Furla SpA was opposing the Chinese trademark “芙拉帝诺”(FU LA DI NUO) in class 25. The characters “芙拉” (FU LA), are used by Chinese consumers when referring to “FURLA”. Regrettably, the client had not secured this Chinese name through a trademark registration…
In a recent decision from 1 October 2018 (B-2740-17) the Danish Eastern High Court affirmed a decision of the Danish Commercial Court from December 2017 (V-8-17) in which the court had ruled that a café in Copenhagen had infringed the trademark rights and copyrights to the character Obelix which rightfully belongs to Les Editions Albert…
It is quite uncommon to have an administrative law Court ruling on IP matters, but sometimes it happens. The Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale del Lazio (Lazio Regional Administrative Court, hereinafter TAR) was recently (decision of T.A.R. of Lazio No. 9050 of 29 August 2018) called to rule on pharmaceuticals parallel imports, more specifically whether or not…
A trade mark infringement matter which has been making the headlines in Norway the last week concerns the small Norwegian beverage producer O. Mathisen´s product JALLASPRITE, which is a lemon flavoured soft drink. Coca-Cola, being the proprietor of the registered and probably reputed trade mark SPRITE, are none too happy about this. O.Mathisen is a…
In an opposition proceeding brought by Frito-Lay North America against Real Foods Pty Ltd., the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board properly determined that the marks CORN THINS and RICE THINS were highly descriptive of their respective goods—”crispbread slices predominantly of corn, namely popped corn cakes” and “crispbread slices primarily made of rice, namely rice cakes”—and…
In what has been considered a surprising decision (see for example previous comments in this blog here), the CJEU has recently held that the proprietor of a mark is entitled to oppose a third party which, without the proprietor’s consent, removes the sign from products and affixes other signs in its place, with a view…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a trademark infringement suit filed by a Nashville restaurant called “The Row Kitchen and Pub” against a competing restaurant named “Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row.” Although the restaurants were direct competitors serving tourists visiting Nashville’s Music Row; offered inexpensive, pub-style food and drinks…
