Class 46
Competitors wake up and smell the Colombian coffee
Federaci?n Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia victorious as EU General Court annuls OHIM's decisions to reject its opposition and cancellation actions against competitors' marks for products that were NOT of the same type.
Last month, the General Court of the European Union ruled in favour of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation in its legal battles against both a French and a Lebanese competitor, holding that the OHIM Board of Appeal erred in applying, in conjunction with Article 8(4) of the CTMR, Article 14(1) instead of Article 13 of the PDO/PGI Regulation - the latter granting a much wider protection to prior PDOs/PGIs against later conflicting trademarks than Article 14(1).
Read more: http://www.marques.org/class46/Default.asp?XID=BHA4217
Poland moves to opposition proceedings in trade mark cases
There are plenty of recent amendments to the Polish Industrial Property Law (IPL), however, one is of the great importance. As of 15 April 2016, the system of opposition proceedings before the Polish Patent Office (PPO) will come into force.
The current procedure requires the PPO to perform a full examination (ex officio) of the applied mark for absolute and relative grounds of refusal. Accordingly, the PPO has to examine collisions between the mark applied for and the earlier marks, which in consequence protracts the procedure. For a long time the system was widely criticized as ineffective comparing to the CTM one.
Read more: http://www.marques.org/class46/Default.asp?XID=BHA4216
Class 99
Danish court rules compatibility illustration infringes design right
A recent note on International Law Office by Mads Marstrand-J?rgensen (Njord Law Firm) explains the ruling in a Danish design case, Sangenic International Limited v Lamico ApS (A-11-15, September 10 2015).
In this action the Maritime and Commercial Court -- which hears a considerable number of civil suits for intellectual property infringement annually -- had to consider whether the reproduction of a registered design infringed the design right. Sangenic was the registered proprietor of a registered Community design for a waste bin for nappies, for which Lamico manufactured refill bags which could be accommodated both by Sangenic's waste bin and the bins of others. To illustrate that Lamico's refill bags would fit Sangenic's bins, Lamico included a small drawing of Sangenic's bin on its labels.
Read more: http://www.marques.org/class99/Default.asp?XID=BHA695
Tic-tac vs. Miki-Maki
OHIM strongly supports the standpoint that even a weak distinctiveness of an earlier three-dimensional trademark, when dealing with a great similarity to a later design and very close similarity between the goods may create a risk of confusion.
In the case to which the decision of the Board of Appeal of 8 September 2015 (Case R 1150/2012-3) referred, a confusing similarity between the Community Registered Design No 826680-0001 and a French trademark IR- 405177 was found. Indeed, there is not much controversy on the similarity between the goods as the design evidently includes candies whereas the trademark is destined for such goods too.
Read more: http://www.marques.org/class99/Default.asp?XID=BHA693
Follow the links for the MARQUES Facebook page, LinkedIn group and Twitter feed.