News & opinion

Priority is an essential element of patent law and its application by the European Patent Office (EPO) has been clarified through case law, as Stéphane Roux explains.

Trademark registrations provide an exclusive right to use protected brand names in the markets, and for the goods and services for which they have been registered. To maintain those rights, however, it is imperative to keep trademarks in use.

A Canadian brewery and a New Zealand leather shop have both been caught out this month after using a Māori word as a brand name that has quite a different meaning to the one they had originally intended.

In its approval of the judgement in Les Grands Chais de France SAS v Consorzio di Tutela della DOC Prosecco, the High Court of England and Wales reminds brand owners that just because a name may resonate well with consumers, it doesn’t mean they should choose it.

The General Court of the EU has annulled an earlier ruling that found Louis Vuitton’s ‘Damier Azur’ trademark pattern to be invalid. But, the Court did not yet answer the all-important question of whether the luxury brand's pattern had acquired distinctive character through use.

In 2018, the General Court of the EU ruled that ‘Perfect Bar' was too descriptive and thus insufficiently distinctive to be registered as a trademark, but the brand owner wouldn’t take no for an answer, as Frouke Hekker explains.

​​​​​​​The US Supreme Court has agreed with the holiday booking site’s argument that its Booking.com brand name is not a generic term.

As a general rule, businesses cannot register generic terms as trademarks when they are directly related to the goods or services being offered. What does that mean for domain names, such as Booking.com?

Following news that Nestlé has had to rebrand its ‘Incredible Burger' after a Dutch court found the brand name too similar to the 'Impossible Burger’, we set out the risks of using laudatory terms in brand names.

The Comité Champagne has successfully challenged the attempt by Czech company Breadway to trademark the term ‘Champagnola’ for use on baked goods, as Manon Brodin explains.

A recent case examined whether a rights holder could enforce a trademark within the registration grace period, even if the right is subsequently revoked for non-use. We set out the ruling and explain the importance of regular portfolio reviews to ensure valuable marks are in use.

In Gömböc, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has provided some welcome guidance on trademarking designs in the EU.