The Czech Supreme Court has recently confirmed that it is an act of unfair competition to file a take-down notice to a social media network claiming intellectual property infringement while omitting further relevant information. The court ordered the defendant to make a submission to the social media network withdrawing the take-down notice and to pay…
On 18 October 2016, His Honour Judge Hacon (‘Hacon’) handed down his decision in AMS Neve Limited v Heritage Audio S.L. [2016] EWHC 2563 (IPEC). This concerned an application, under the Civil Procedure Rules Part 11, by the Spanish defendant ‘Heritage’ for a declaration that the English Courts do not have jurisdiction to try the…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board properly affirmed a trademark examining attorney’s refusal to register two proposed marks consisting of prominent wording—”SHIMMERING BALLERINAS & DANCERS CHARACTER COLLECTION” and “SHIMMERING RAINFOREST CHARACTER COLLECTION,” respectively—adjacent to three columns of hundreds of terms that appeared to be story titles or character names, the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
A recent Supreme Court judgement in the Dalí case shows clear respect for trademarks but raises some questions regarding image. A great many brands have used in their advertising campaigns the images of people who, despite no longer being alive, continue to have considerable selling power. There are even marketing studies which show that advertising…
To ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs. Here are the top posts from August and September. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright Blog…
In a decision of June 2, 2016 Svea Court of Appeal found Mars’ popular product “m&m’s” infringing Kraft Foods Sverige Intellectual Property AB’s non-registered trademark “m” in relation to candy and chocolates. Mars’ sales of products bearing the trademarks “m” and “m&m’s” were therefore prohibited in Sweden under the penalty of a fine of SEK…
A federal district court properly found that plaintiff Three Rivers Confections (TRC) owned the word marks FUDGETOPIA and FUDGIE WUDGIE through a lawful transfer by non-party Fudgie Wudgie L.P. (FWLP), the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has ruled. The district court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of Three Rivers Confections was therefore affirmed (Three…
In March 2016, the UKIPO refused registration of the mark A DOG IS FOR LIFE NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS in its entirety on the grounds that it would merely be seen as a non-distinctive inspirational and promotional strap line. The applicant (the Dogs Trust charity) argued that the mark had already been successfully registered in…
On September 23, 2016 the EU Commission published its Report on EU customs enforcement of intellectual property rights for 2015 – the annual publication of the result of customs actions at the EU external borders. As in previous years, the Report contains statistical information about the detentions made under customs procedures and includes data on…
There was not much about trademarks during this year’s AIPPI Congress, which was held from September 16 to 20 in Milan (see Panel Sessions and Study Questions). Most of the discussions were focused on such hot topics as the Unified Patent Court or Brexit (the latter of course involving some important trademark-related aspects) and one…
