In two significant legislative steps, Poland has changed its overprotective approach to earlier rights in trademark application proceedings. Traditionally, the Polish Patent Office (PPO) examined relative grounds for refusal ex officio. It refused to register trademarks identical or confusingly similar to those covered by earlier registrations or applications, even if the owner of an earlier…
For those who were unsure whether the duty of a reseller of imported goods to provide information is limited to cases involving unlawfully copied goods and thus does not encompass unlawfully distributed original goods the Austrian Supreme Court (“the Court”) recently provided a clear answer (decision of 17.11.2015, 4 Ob 170/15a – Markenparfums). In the…
The Prague City Court reviewed decision of the Czech Industrial Property Office on invalidity of trademark “Partners banka” logo filed by the largest provider of financial advisory services in the Czech Republic. The trademark owner did not hold a banking licence. The court held that the Office did not err when it invalidated the trademark…
The general rule in German opposition proceedings is that each party bears its own costs. But what are the exceptions? A recent decision by the Federal Patent Court shows once more how difficult it is to obtain a decision ordering one party to bear the costs of another (decision of the Federal Patent Court of…
A lifestyle and hospitality company well known for its luxurious beach clubs and hotels, has recently succeeded in registering EPICUREAN LOUNGE word mark in the European Union. While the OHIM examiner initially refused the application on the grounds of descriptiveness, an appeal reversed the examiner’s decision. In September 2014, Nikki Beach filed a community trademark application…
The federal district court in West Palm Beach, Florida, did not commit reversible error in granting the operators of a complaint website, Brian Styles and Samantha Styles, summary judgment on claims under the Copyright Act, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”), the Lanham Act, and state law brought by Dan Pronman and Gary Pronman, the…
The UK Court of Appeal recently upheld the High Court’s decision that the use of ‘glee’ by Twentieth Century Fox (‘Fox’) as the name of its comedy TV series infringed an earlier trade mark registration for THE GLEE CLUB. So called ‘wrong way round’ confusion played a central role in this. The claimant (and respondent…
The Spanish Supreme Court recently had to consider the likelihood of confusion between the representation of a lila mop registered as a two-dimensional trade mark and another party’s actual product, again, a lila mop. The signs at issue were the following: Trademarks owned by the plaintiff Defendant’s use The Court rejected the…
In September 2015 the German Bundesgerichtshof (BGH), Germany’s highest civil court, decided questions regarding the conversion of a Community Trademark into a national German trademark. The outcome was painful. The ruling greatly weakened the Community trademark system. The case was referred back to the appeal court (OLG Düsseldorf) which will hopefully refer the case to…
The Lisbon Court of Appeal has recently confirmed a decision – debatable, as we will further develop – from the IP Court. In this matter, a wine company owns a trademark “QUINTA DE PANCAS”, which refers to a wine producing. The bottles in which these wines are commercialized show an image of a manor, the…
