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Choosing a ‘strong’ brand name for your business can be a challenging undertaking. Depending on your market and industry, there is a risk that your preferred name will have already been registered as a trademark by a third party. But what if you choose a similar logo?
Can you own the copyright to a song title? That’s the question at the heart of the recent dispute over Mariah Carey’s seasonal chart topper 'All I Want for Christmas is You'.
As part of its initiative to curb illicit trade in counterfeit goods, the Kenyan government has introduced the compulsory recordation of IP rights at the Kenyan Anti-Counterfeit Authority. With the new requirement due to come into effect on 1 January 2023, Volha Parfenchyk explains the procedure.
Generic and ordinary terms, such as ‘very’, ‘most’ and ‘like’, are normally considered to lack the distinctive character necessary for trademark registration. In finding likelihood of confusion between two trademarks using the word ‘so’, the EU General Court’s recent ruling is remarkable.
Racing car driver Max Verstappen hopes to continue his winning streak in the courts as he seeks to protect his portrait (image) right against the use of a lookalike. Julia Schefman explains the background to the Dutch case, while Marine Dissoubray and Luke Portnow provide the French and UK perspectives.
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.
PPH programmes can help patent applicants to accelerate the grant of a patent application in a second patent office. We set out the opportunities and benefits of the system.
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.