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WEDNESDAY, 10 MARCH 2010
Italy publishes new decree, but no timetable for implementation
Class 46 has just received this newsflash from MARQUES External Relations Officer Alessandra Romeo:
By Decree of January 13, 2010, No. 33, the Implementing Regulation of the Italian Industrial Property Code, as adopted by Law Decree of 10 February 2005, No. 30, has been published on the Official Gazette No. 56, Ordinary Supplement No. 48/L on March 9, 2010.
The new Industrial Property Law Code actually entered in force in Italy nearly five years ago. This new Code, the result of an extensive revision and upgrade of earlier industrial property rights laws, also introduced some significant changes and simplifications in trade marks procedures before the Office (e.g. in respect of the formalities and requirements for recording a transfer in ownership of IP rights) and also enacted administrative opposition proceedings.
The publication of the Implementing Regulation will eventually make it possible to protect trade mark rights by means of administrative opposition proceedings in Italy. However, the timetable for the implementation of all required tools, including the publication of applications in the Official Bulletin of Trade Marks for opposition purposes, remains unknown. Further developments will be reported as soon as we have them.
Posted by: Jeremy Phillips @ 17.01
Tags: Italy, Implementing Regulation, |
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WEDNESDAY, 10 MARCH 2010
Spain - "Look who's dancing" ... in the Courtroom.
By reading the on-line version of the El Mundo, this blogger has learned of an interesting trade mark case on the title famous TV programm in Spain.
According to the news, the Commercial Court no. 1 of Madrid has awarded an interim injunction against a TV channel which is currently broadcasting a quite a successfull TV programm called "¡Mira quién baila!" ("Look who's dancing!"). This programm, devotedly followed by this blogger's grandmother, consists in training a number of celebrities in the fine art of dancing. Each gala ends (my grandmother has told me) with a dancing contest in which the participants are graded.
The article reports the claimant (another TV Channel which broadcasted the same format years before) filed an application for interim relief on the basis of the registered Spanish trade mark no. 2649632 "Mira quién baila" . Legal actions were initiated on February 8, 2010, and the hearing took place on February 25. The decision was issued shortly after (date unknown) .
After visiting the respondent's website, it seems that respondent is moving to the acronym "MQB" ("Más que baile").
Posted by: Ignacio Marques @ 13.02
Tags: Spain, interim relief., |
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TUESDAY, 9 MARCH 2010
Text-book - or rather: porn-film - case of tarnishment
UBS threatens to sue the Swiss distributor of a porn film with the title "USB - Our Swiss Bank" (or possibly already sued, the news article is not entirely clear). If you look at the image above I'd say that they have a pretty good case (btw, the original cover does not have the two white strips over the strategically important places; I've added them for the benefit of our American readers, where one apparently can get fired for looking at a nipple at work).
The producer notes that he is not using the trade mark UBS, but rather USB, and that the three keys, which look suspiciously like the UBS keys, are also part of the crest of his home town. Well.... these have to be the worst excuses ever. On the other hand, he got the publicity he wanted, and UBS will have great difficulty proving financial damages.
Source (with uncensored image)
Posted by: Mark Schweizer @ 19.09
Tags: tarnishment, famous mark, reputation, Switzerland, |
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TUESDAY, 9 MARCH 2010
Brands talk to mark World IP Day
 Monday 26 April is the World Intellectual Property Organization's World Intellectual Property Day and, to mark it, the IP Finance weblog has organised a mid-day seminar on "Brands and the Cost of Corporate Conscience". The speaker, who is known to MARQUES members following her dynamic presentation at last year's Brighton Conference, is Marjolijn Vencken (Trouble in Paradise).
The venue is the London office of law firm Olswang. Admission is free. Author, barrister and member of the trade mark judiciary Amanda Michaels (Hogarth Chambers) is in the chair. MARQUES members are particularly welcome! If you'd like to attend, the full details can be found here.
Posted by: Jeremy Phillips @ 10.08
Tags: World IP Day, |
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TUESDAY, 9 MARCH 2010
Switzerland: adding sparkles to your ad copy is not misleading
The Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice in its article 5 states that (emphasis added by Class46):
Marketing communication should not contain any statement, or audio or visual treatment which, directly or by implication, omission, ambiguity or exaggeration, is likely to mislead the consumer [...]
A complainant brought a complaint before the Swiss Lauterkeitskommission - the self-governing body of the Swiss advertising industry - arguing that the sparkles added to the advertising copy for a tiles joint cleaner were a misleading "visual treatment" (see image). The Lauterkeitskommission disagreed: the sparkles were so obviously fake that no consumer would be misled to believe that the cleaner would actually cause the joints to sparkle.
Thank you for this show of sanity. Decision (in German) here.
Posted by: Mark Schweizer @ 09.34
Tags: icc, switzerland, marketing, |
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MONDAY, 8 MARCH 2010
An Oscar for Logorama
The animation movie Logorama received the 2010 Oscar in the Short Film (animated) category.
As previously
mentioned on Class 46, one of the particularities of this film is that its casting and set exclusivly consist in logos. In 16 minutes, you will have seen about 3000 trade marks, which, I believe, is only a little bit more than the average product placement rate for a James Bond movie. Another thing the Class 46 readership might be curious about Logorama: the movie stars collaborated without their impresario's consent.
Nicolas Schmerkin (producer of the film) declared: "I have to thank the 3,000 non-official sponsors that appear in the film. And I have to
assure them that no logos were harmed in the making of the project."
Watch an interview with the film makers (in French).
The concept of Logorama is not unlike FoodFight!, another 3D CGI film with brand characters as heros, which has been in production mode for a while now.
Posted by: Frédéric Glaize @ 14.32
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MONDAY, 8 MARCH 2010
Poland: the reputation of a trade mark
The Polish Patent Office invalidated the right of protection for 3MA R-171362 trade mark owned by the Polish company MARMA Polskie Folie Sp. z o.o. The proceeding were initiated by the 3M Company, the owner of 3M R-84046 and word-figurative 3M R-84047 trade marks. The American company has claimed the reputation of its signs and argued that the registration of 3MA R-171362 trade mark would bring its owner unfair advantage and it would be detrimental to the distinctive character and the reputation of 3M’s trade marks. The complaint of MARMA Polskie Folie Sp. z o.o. company was rejected by the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw in a judgment of 9 October 2009, case file VI SA/Wa 233/09.
The VAC ruled that in the absence of a legal definition of the reputation it was the legal doctrine and the courts who have defined the essential criteria for determining the reputation of the trade mark. Accordingly, the reputation of the trade mark is associated with the established opinion among customers about the characteristics of the goods bearing the mark. The reputation is not a simple consequence of the use and circulation of a trade mark, but it’s also a well-established and deeply rooted image in the consciousness of buyers of vital goods. The reputation of a trade mark is a result of the care for the high quality of products, the consistent preservation of a sign on the market by long and intensive advertising. An established reputation of a trade mark occurs when the quality of the goods bearing the sign satisfy customers who can easily recognize it and connect with the goods marked by the proprietor, even if it means that the goods are placed on the market for the first time. The reputation of a trade mark means its attractive value of advertising, the positive perceptions of the goods bearing the sign. In assessing whether the sign is reputed, one cannot take into the account only the degree of knowledge of a sign among the customers and the extent and intensity of advertising of goods bearing the sign, but also the quality of these goods. Prizes and certificates awarded for the goods bearing the sign, expert opinions and presentation of the goods at trade fairs in order to promote products also show the reputation of the trade mark.
This judgment is not yet final. A cassation complaint may be filed to the Supreme Administrative Court.
See also Class46 post entitled "Poland: proving the fame of a trade mark".
Posted by: Tomasz Rychlicki @ 10.40
Tags: Polish Patent Office, Polish courts, Polish law, Voivodeship Administrative Court, famous trade marks, reputed trade marks, |
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