Amazon’s internal search engine has already been the subject of a decision by the High Court (England and Wales) made just over two years ago (2014, EWHC 181, ch). The claimant was the proprietor of…
In September 2015 the German Bundesgerichtshof (BGH), Germany’s highest civil court, decided questions regarding the conversion of a Community Trademark into a national German trademark. The outcome…
On March 3, the Swedish Court of Patent Appeals (‘PBR’) delivered a judgment on the effect of a reputed EUTM in a single member state. PBR held that even if the EUTM ‘SKY’ et al were extensively used…
In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal of The Hague concluded that there is a confusing similarity between Lacoste's device mark consisting of a picture of a crocodile, registered for (among other…
The dispute started with the termination of a license contract by which Együd Garage was entitled to use Daimler AG’s trade mark “Mercedes-Benz” and to describe itself as ‘felhatalmazott Mercedes…
The scope of protection conferred upon trade mark owners can often prove to be a controversial subject, particularly where the trade mark applied for has a decorative look and feel to it. Despite…
The Alicante Appellate Court has confirmed that the use of lists comparing fragrances to well-known perfume brands is illegal.
Comparison lists compare smell-alike perfumes with the respective high…
Whether use of a trade mark in just one Member State is sufficient or not to support the validity of a CTM is an issue practitioners and Courts have struggled with since the CTM system began. The…
The CJEU had to decide whether “El Corte Inglés” was confusingly similar to “The English Cut”. It wasn’t – however it might just be similar enough for article 8(5) CTMR (dilution protection) to apply…
