Kai Schmidt-Hern

With decision of 25th February 2019, the German Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) has ruled on the registrability of a celebrity name for inter alia publications in class 16. The…

    This case is about the genuine use of shape marks. M J Quinlan & Associates PTY Ltd. of Australia own a 1999 registration for the shape of a kangaroo. The mark is protected for potato snacks and…

  In a judgement of April 2018, the Regional Court of Hamburg has ruled on the use of original advertising material by non-authorized dealers and on how trademark law can bypass copyright law (308 O…

This post is the sequel to the post 'Trademarks in Transactions – Part I: Due Diligence' which dealt with trademark issues which regularly arise during the due diligence phase of an M&A transaction…

On 6th December 2017, the ECJ issued its judgement in the matter Coty / Akzente. The judgement is essentially about three questions: 1)         Does the luxurious nature of products or trademarks…

Trademark questions pop up in practically every M&A transaction. Many of these questions are straightforward, some require specialist knowledge. Specialists like to demonstrate as much of their…

  On June 14, 2017, the Commission opened investigations against Nike, Universal Studios and Sanrio (“Hello Kitty”) for their distribution and licensing practices. The Commission suspects that the…

This important decision by the German Federal Supreme Court of 15 January 2017 is about how the protection against copying under unfair competition law interplays with trademark and patent law: The…

3-D Mark litigation is like life itself – you never know what you're going to get. And for that reason, it’s all the more enjoyable when a 3-D registration prevails over a knock-off. A notorious…