Insights

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. We discuss 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.

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. 

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).

The system for design protection continues to expand with China the latest country to file an instrument of accession. The country will complete this process on 5 May 2022 making now a good time to consider whether your IP rights in China are adequately protected.

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.