The Cancellation Division of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) surprisingly revoked the European Union Trademark ‘BIG MAC’ in its decision of 11 January 2019 (Cancellation No 14 788 C). …
On 26 June 2018, the General Court (GC) upheld the decision of the Board of Appeal (BoA) and confirmed that the word and device trademark “France.com” cannot be registered in the EU due to a likelihood of…
On 15 March 2018, the General Court of the European Union (GC) annulled the prior decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the EUIPO (Case R 165/2016-4), deeming that there indeed was a likelihood of confusion…
On 30 November 2017, the European General Court (EGC) upheld the previous decision of the Board of Appeal of the EUIPO in the joined cases T-101/15 and T-102/15, Red Bull v EUIPO. The EGC confirmed that the…
Decisions
German Federal Court
German Trademarks
Intellectual Property Law
Three-dimensional trademarks
Trademarks
In its recent decision of 18 October 2017, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) held square-shaped chocolate packaging eligible for protection as three-dimensional trademarks and annulled two…
An Italian decision from March 2016 clarified the scope of protection for shape marks when it comes to jewelry, where a minor design change makes all the difference. The judge confirmed that even the smaller…
In line with a recent Louboutin decision, the Swiss Court on 13 May 2016 decided on another purely decorative element filed as a position trademark. This time, German flashlights were in question, and the circular…
Decisions
Intellectual Property
Likelihood of confusion
The Court of Justice of the European Union
Trademarks
The two Merck pharmaceutical magnates have shared one name for decades. However, their coexistence has become anything but peaceful, with mutual lawsuits filed all over Europe, and not without good reason. The…
Europe is definitely caught up in football fever. Not even the European General Court (EGC) was spared. Rendering their decision on the case Cule v Kule, they decided on the link between a football club and its…
Welcome to Whatsapp.com! Step one, choose a preferred language for a more personalized experience. That is, unless you are looking for the Terms of Service (ToS). Although being one of the most important elements…
The Federal Administrative Court in Switzerland recently ruled that Apple’s home button cannot be registered as a trademark as it lacks distinctive character. The Court did not find it evident that the mark had…
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The General Court (EGC) held that as the marks were phonetically identical and visually and conceptually similar they should be regarded as similar overall. Followed from this it was held that the mark at issue…
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given a preliminary ruling on questions relating to Nestlé’s three-dimensional trademark application representing the shape of a four finger chocolate-coated…
The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled that one must be strict when comparing a word mark with a three-dimensional mark in order to prevent right owners from monopolizing product shapes by obtaining word…
The European General Court (EGC) rules that a word with laudatory connotations may be registered as a trade mark if it does not specifically describe the goods and services and not all of its meanings are…
The German Federal Court of Justice ruled on two aspects of trade mark law in its recent decision. The conclusion of the Court was, firstly, that a mark which is registered in black and white is not identical with…
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given a preliminary ruling on questions relating to three-dimensional trademarks forwarded to it by the Dutch courts (Judgment dates 18 September 2014;…
The German Federal Supreme Court decided that only Langenscheidt is allowed to use the color yellow for language training products in Germany (Judgment dated 18 September 2014; I ZR 228/12).
Background of the…
This upcoming Munich Patent Law Conference on 14 June 2013 held in English will focus on:
"Calculating patent damages in six (6) countries, namely
Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Japan, and USA".
Th…