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The joint study released in March also discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing problems by opening new opportunities for illicit trade.
If you registered your brand name as a trademark, you can oppose the (more recent) use of a similar name for similar products and/or services if that use could cause confusion among the relevant public. To exercise your trademark rights, you must first monitor and identify for conflicting use.
Businesses and their trademark departments need to react quickly to new global and digital challenges today if they are to secure their brand for the future.
Brands routinely find creative and innovative ways to generate new customers or retain existing ones. A notable recent example of this has been the use of sub-brands to branch out into the same or a new market without jeopardising the parent brand’s existing position. Laura Morrish discusses the trademark implications.
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.
On 24 February 2022, our experts discussed how to effectively manage an international trademark portfolio with the new (virtual) world challenges through the corporate lens, with speakers from GrandVision (AM session) and Luxottica (PM session).
Domain names play an important role in the sales and marketing activity of any organisation, but the IP implications of registering and managing online channels can be easily overlooked, especially if responsibility sits outside the IP department with marketing and/or IT teams. We set out points to consider when seeking to align domain name registrations with trademark rights.
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.