The Ninth Circuit clarified that the first sale doctrine was not meant to be limited to purchasers who do no more than stock, display, and resell a producer’s product. In a trademark infringement suit involving the use of Bluetooth technology in Fiat Chrysler vehicles, the Ninth Circuit in an interlocutory appeal reversed a Washington district…
The General Court (GC) recently overturned a decision from the EUIPO that an opposition based on earlier UK unregistered rights be rejected as, following the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, opponents could no longer rely upon the rules governing common law actions of passing off in EU oppositions. In this case, Jungo Ye…
Poland introduced specialized IP Courts on July 1, 2020, resulting in significant changes to preventive measures, including the conditions for requesting information regarding an infringement of an intellectual property right. The IP Court in Warsaw has in the meantime referred a preliminary question to the Court of Justice (CJEU), namely: does one have to demonstrate…
Read up on the latest news reported by the Kluwer IP Reporter here. Colombia publishes practice paper on figurative marks The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) of the Columbian Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism has published a practice paper giving a comprehensive explanation about the principles to examine figurative marks that have descriptive…
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld FIFA’s claim and found that the figurative marks “PUMA WORLD CUP QATAR 2022” and “PUMA WORLD CUP 2022” were misleading. At the same time, it ruled on the counterclaim by Puma that the trademarks “WORLD CUP 2022” and “Qatar 2022” refer descriptively to the World Cup event and are…
The prince and his prince house – where he lived happily ever after The Swiss Federal Administrative Court, as the appeal authority in opposition proceedings, supported the decision of the FIIP and ruled that there was a likelihood of confusion between the younger trademark “Prinzenhaus” (engl. prince house) and the earlier trademark “Prinz” (engl. prince)…
By Tamara Céline Winegust and Janice Bereskin. On June 17, 2022, it will be three years since the coming into force of major amendments to the Canadian Trademarks Act, and, importantly, three years since the Trademarks Office began registering trademarks without claims of use. In just under a month, those trademarks will start becoming vulnerable to…
The UK finally said bye-bye to the EU, but for how long will UK-based rights still matter in deciding EUTM-related controversies? This is the subject of two recent decisions by the General Court, i.e. the Basmati case, T‑342/20, decided on October 6, 2021, and the subsequent APE TEES case, T‑281/21, decided on March 16, 2022. In…
On 4 March 2021, the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court (the Court) issued a decision between Mads Heindorf Jewellery (Mads Heindorf) and the company Heindorf Diamonds. The dispute regarded the jeweler Mads Heindorf’s trademark for the word “Heindorf”, which was asserted infringed by Heindorf Diamonds’ use of the name “Heindorf Diamonds” in relation to…
The Israeli Deputy Registrar, in a recent decision, overturned a rejection made by the examiner, and allowed the registration of a trademark for the Hebrew transliteration of “Chef Line” in classes 11 and 35 (Trademark Application No. 315406). In her decision, the Deputy Registrar accepted the arguments of the applicant, A.M. Chef Line Limited, which…
