EU

Establishing valid priority claims can be challenging for co-applicants in Europe, as Stéphanie Landais-Patarin explains.

If you receive an invoice or special offer from a company you do not know, there is a risk it could be a scam. A growing number of dishonest companies are sending out fake invoices and misleading offers hoping to catch patent and trademark owners unaware. 

Oppositions to EU trademark applications that included the word ‘Rocky’ have been rejected on the grounds that any likelihood of confusion with the titular film character has been neutralised by the obvious conceptual differences.

PPH programmes can help patent applicants to accelerate the grant of a patent application in a second patent office. We set out the opportunities and benefits of the system.

EU General Court decision of 1 December 2021 reaffirms that neither market preferences nor commercial or aesthetic considerations are considered limits to design freedom, as Julia Schefman explains.

Latest development at the EPO is a further example of the challenges that applicants, particularly from the US, face when ensuring valid priority claims for European Patent (EP) applications, as Dr Oliver Harris explains. 

The European Patent Office (EPO) has published a draft version of its new Guidelines for Examination, which will enter into force on 1 March 2022. Martin Kohrs examines the proposed changes.

Music app Spotify has successfully opposed the registration of the trademark ‘Potify’ by marijuana app Potify on the grounds of dilution by blurring and tarnishment. Julia Schefman examines the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruling and asks whether the outcome would have been any different under EU law. 

The legal dispute between Marks & Spencer and Aldi over their rival Colin the Caterpillar and Cuthbert the Caterpillar birthday cakes was the source of many headlines and Twitter posts in 2021. Luke Portnow explains what the supermarket chains' decision to settle out of court means for the UK's law of 'passing off' post-Brexit.

In a 2014 press release, luxury car manufacturer Ferrari presented its new FXX K sports car to the public for the first time. Its battle to enforce an unregistered design right based on that disclosure has taken it through the German courts to the CJEU.

Typefaces, as with any graphic creation, can benefit from legal protection as long as they meet the relevant criteria for IP protection.

Inditex, the parent company of trendy clothing brand Zara, has partially failed in its attempt to register an EU trademark to cover food products, restaurants and related services. In its December 2021 ruling, the EU General Court found mainly in favour of food producer Ffauf Italia, as Julia Schefman explains.