Trademarks & Domain Names

In Pharmadom v EUIPO, the EU General Court ruled out likelihood of confusion between MediWell and Well and Well. Florence Chapin outlines the ruling.

Trademark owners with prior rights can oppose the registration of confusingly similar trademarks on the grounds of visual, phonetic and/or conceptual similarities. But, what is meant by conceptual similarity, and how is it established?

The EU has agreed a further extension to 31 January 2020 with the option for the UK to leave earlier if the Prime Minister can secure support for the withdrawal deal. Does this mean a no-deal Brexit is now off the table?

When it comes to celebrity tattoos, the story is always who's got one and where – but what about the artist who created the design? We redress the balance.

With Halloween ‘creeping’ up on us, we’ve rounded up some ‘trick-y’ and ‘sweet’ case law updates to get us in the mood for the upcoming spooky festivities.

You can’t escape memes on social media these days, so it’s no surprise to find that corporations are beginning to get in on the act. 

Applications for non-traditional trademarks, such as sounds, smells and motion marks, make up only a small percentage of annual trademark applications in the EU. However, their importance is beginning to grow. 

On 27 September, yet another country deposited its instrument of accession; Malaysia. This means that Malaysia can be designated in an international trademark registration (IR) as of 27 December 2019.

The English Premier League revealed this month that it had seized more than 160,000 counterfeit items, worth more than £5 million, in the past year.

A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU has broadened the options for taking action against online trademark infringement, by giving trademark owners a wider choice of court, as Casper Hemelrijk explains.

Pennsylvania State University (‘Penn State’) has filed suit against Florida-based Sports Beer Brewing Company for trademark infringement over its use of the university’s name, brand and sporting mascot.

An application to register Uncle Sam as a figurative trademark has been refused by the USPTO on the grounds of its iconic character and cultural significance.