Aldi GmbH & Co KG v. European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO); SKY plc Intervenor (Judgment of the General Court (Fifth Chamber) October 19, 2017 (Case T-736/15))
In 2013, Aldi GmbH & Co KG (“Aldi”) applied to register the mark SKYLITE,More
Coty Germany GmbH v. Parfumerie Akzente GmbH, European Court of Justice, Case No. C-230/16 (December 6, 2017).
In a recent and anticipated decision issued by the European Court of Justice (the “ECJ” or “the Court”), the Court held that luxury brand owners can,More
Amendments to China’s Unfair Competition Law came into effect on January 1, 2018. These were the first amendments since the law was introduced in 1993. Salient features of the amended law include the following:
X v. Twitter Inc [2017] NSWSC 1300
In a decision which has received considerable local commentary in Australia, the equity division of the New South Wales Supreme Court has granted a worldwide injunction against Twitter (namely Twitter Inc., the U.S. company,More
A Presidential Decree published on January 11, 2018 introduced procedural changes with respect to applications and registrations for trademarks, patents, and designs. As to trademarks, the changes are intended to shorten prosecution and streamline oppositions. Significant amendments affecting trademarks are:
Under a new procedure in the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), trademark registration maintenance and
renewal filings are randomly selected for audit when the goods or services list
includes multiple items. In the audit,
the examiner issues an Office action requesting proof of use of the mark for
two additional goods or services per class in the registration that were not
shown in the specimen(s) of use filed with the maintenance filing. More
Ceasri S.R.L. v. Peju Province Winery, L.P., 2017 WL 6509004 (S.D.N.Y. December 11, 2017)
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court held in B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries,
Inc., 135 S.Ct 1293 (2015), that a decision of the Trademark Trial and
Appeal Board of the U.S.More
The Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (“TMEP”) is the official manual
of the United States Patent and Trademark Office governing how the Office
handles trademark applications and registrations. Some of its provisions are frustratingly
restrictive for trademark owners, such as prohibitions against accepting
advertising materials as specimens of use for marks for goods. More
Protections available
for new fashion designs in the U.S. appear more limited than in certain other countries
and jurisdictions. There is no
unregistered design right. Copyright
laws tend not to apply to utilitarian articles like footwear and bags. Moreover, developing trademark and trade
dress rights usually requires extensive prior use sufficient to demonstrate
acquired distinctiveness or secondary meaning in the particular article to
establish source-indicating significance among consumers.More
The Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (“DMCA”) provides internet service providers (“ISPs”) with an
important safe harbor from copyright infringement liability based on infringing
material residing on their systems or networks at the direction of internet users. Among other requirements for safe harbor
eligibility, each ISP must designate an agent to receive notifications of
claimed infringement and provide information concerning the agent to the U.S.More