16 Dec, 2024 Fact or Law? Scope of the Board of Appeal’s assessment can include well-known facts not adduced by parties By Julia Präger Introduction In the realm of trade mark law, the assessment of potential confusion between marks is a critical component of legal...
11 Nov, 2024 When evidence fails, ICE trade mark melts away By Martina Fossati A new wake-up call regarding the importance of genuine use for trade mark owners On September 2, 2024, the EUIPO Board of Appeal (the...
09 Sep, 2024 More Than Words: The Registrability of Non-Traditional Marks in Singapore By Lorraine Tay Alison Wan Xuan Tang Gene Kwek If I took those words away, how would you make the examiner understand, and show her that your non-traditional mark is real? ...
02 Aug, 2024 EUIPO Board of Appeal rules that Canada Goose mark is distinctive By Simran Sidhu Canada Goose sought to register a figurative mark comprising 16 representations of geese for Class 25 goodsThe EUIPO examiner rejected...
11 Jul, 2024 Champagne for everybody? – General Court denies acquired distinctiveness of orange colour trade mark for Champagne By Jan Bärenfänger How strict are the requirements for proving acquired distinctiveness throughout the EU? This question has been bothering trade mark...
25 Apr, 2024 Going Green: The Dos and Don’ts of Green Trade Marks By Constantin Eikel Green trade marks are trade marks that include any word related to the environment (such as “sustainable”, “eco”, “environment” or...
19 Apr, 2024 On Your Marks, Get Set, Register! By Christine Danos April Parker With the famous Grand National race recently coming to an end, this year’s winner, I Am Maximus, has quickly become a household name....
02 Apr, 2024 Proving bad faith: it takes a tough cookie? By Nina Dorenbosch In a case centred around the iconic Dutch biscuit – the stroopwafel – the highest trademark court of the Benelux recently gave some...
06 Dec, 2023 “Facing” the possibility of registering human faces as trade marks – EUIPO clears up the issue By Pietro Dettori It is well known that one of the main functions of a trade mark is to identify a person or trader’s products or services. In this way,...
20 Nov, 2023 Super Simon – a super trade mark? By Jan Bärenfänger Can a 22-second video be a trade mark? Perhaps a 22-second video featuring Super Simon can? That’s what an applicant wanted to know from...
20 Sep, 2023 Can emojis be trade marks? Thumbs down from EUIPO leaves applicant with sad face By Naji Tilley In Case R 2305/2022 Käselow Holding GmbH (1 June 2023), the EUIPO Board of Appeal (BoA) rejected an appeal against the refusal to...
28 Feb, 2023 The International Olympic Committee successfully cancels third party registration for “PARIS 2024” By Marta Arteaga José Miguel Lissén In 2013, at a time when Paris was positioning itself as the favourite venue for the 2024 Olympic Games, four individuals applied to...
22 Feb, 2023 Lessons learned from the BIG MAC: how to prevent trademark revocation for non-use By Paola Ruggiero Francesca Rombola Martina Fossati Registering a trademark is not enough to prevent trademark revocation This case serves as a reminder that simply registering a trademark...
15 Feb, 2023 Changes to UK trade mark law for well known marks By Harry Ferguson The Trade Marks (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/1303) (the ‘Regulations’) came into force on 27 December 2022. The Regulations will...
23 Dec, 2022 No Christmas (trade mark) cheer for Iceland Foods at Grand Board of Appeal By Peter Brownlow The EUIPO Grand Board of Appeal released its decisions in the high-profile battle over two ICELAND trade marks. The UK supermarket,...
30 Nov, 2022 Legal action against a company name in the UK: everything you need to know By Carina Rodriguez Thomas Hooper One possible and effective way to stop a company that has registered the same or a very similar company name in the UK with Companies...