News & opinion

Trademark assignment recordals against UK rights have been on the rise since Brexit, as EU trademark owners are now required to manage these rights separately.

The number of countries joining the Madrid System for international trademark registrations continues to grow, with Chile and Cape Verde the latest to deposit instruments of accession. Applicants will be able to designate the countries in their international trademark registrations (IR) as of July this year.

Have you ever thought about using a well-known painting or work of art as a trademark? It is a strategy that has proved successful in the past, as illustrated by Nestlé’s adoption of the Johannes Vermeer painting Milkmaid. However, there are a number of pitfalls that must first be identified and overcome, as Volha Parfenchyk explains.

The joint study released in March also discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing problems by opening new opportunities for illicit trade.

The District Court of Amsterdam has found geo-blocking and access-restricting measures sufficient to protect the copyright of Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’, despite the fact such measures are not fully airtight.

EU General Court decision of 1 December 2021 reaffirms that neither market preferences nor commercial or aesthetic considerations are considered limits to design freedom, as Julia Schefman explains.

Latest development at the EPO is a further example of the challenges that applicants, particularly from the US, face when ensuring valid priority claims for European Patent (EP) applications, as Dr Oliver Harris explains. 

The European Patent Office (EPO) has published a draft version of its new Guidelines for Examination, which will enter into force on 1 March 2022. Martin Kohrs examines the proposed changes.

Music app Spotify has successfully opposed the registration of the trademark ‘Potify’ by marijuana app Potify on the grounds of dilution by blurring and tarnishment. Julia Schefman examines the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruling and asks whether the outcome would have been any different under EU law. 

The legal dispute between Marks & Spencer and Aldi over their rival Colin the Caterpillar and Cuthbert the Caterpillar birthday cakes was the source of many headlines and Twitter posts in 2021. Luke Portnow explains what the supermarket chains' decision to settle out of court means for the UK's law of 'passing off' post-Brexit.

In a 2014 press release, luxury car manufacturer Ferrari presented its new FXX K sports car to the public for the first time. Its battle to enforce an unregistered design right based on that disclosure has taken it through the German courts to the CJEU.

Typefaces, as with any graphic creation, can benefit from legal protection as long as they meet the relevant criteria for IP protection.