Case law

The UK Court of Appeal’s (Criminal Division) (CoA) judgment in R v C & Ors [2016] EWCA Crim 1617 provides a positive result for brand owners tackling the thorny issue of grey goods.  Here, the CoA…

 And the winner is… the Oscar. It is hard not to connect the word ‘Oscar’ to the statuette awarded every year in Los Angeles for the best movies, directors, actors and producers. At the same time,…

A recent judgment by the Beijing IP Court has thwarted Apple’s attempts to obtain trademark protection for the standby screen of the iWatch! Apple may appeal this judgment. On 13 November 2014 Apple…

In a recent decision, the Federal Administrative Court reminded everybody that under Article 5(2)(a) Madrid Protocol, any refusal of protection of an international mark may only be based on the…

An injunction preventing China-based Sun Earth Solar Power Co. and its U.S. affiliate NBSolar, Inc. (collectively, "SESP") from using the trademark "Sun-Earth," while permitting SESP to state within…

The UK High Court (‘HC’) decision in Victoria Plum Ltd v Victorian Plumbing Ltd & Ors [2016] EWHC 2911 concerns the use of AdWords by co-existing competitors bidding on each others’ names. Of…

 In mid-November, the Russian Intellectual Property Court published a noteworthy decision shedding light on an ambiguous pre-trial procedure in IP disputes. The procedure (effective since 1 June 2016…

A recent case before the European Court of Justice has dealt with the interesting question of how Article 7(1)(e)(ii) of Regulation No 40/94 (now replaced by Regulation 207/2009), which provides that…

  In a decision dated 21 September, 2016 the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court decided that use of the name ‘Graceland Randers’ is an infringement of the reputed trademark ‘Graceland’ owned…