In the second of our articles focusing on brand protection on online marketplaces, Markus Rouvinen explains how the forthcoming Digital Services Act offers both opportunities and risks for brand owners seeking to protect their IP online.
Online brand protection strategies and the EU Digital Services Act
The growth of e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic has placed the IP spotlight once again on brand protection on online marketplaces. Markus Rouvinen sets out how recent case law may offer new routes for brand owners to protect their rights on these platforms.
Think digital: Adapting IP protection strategies for online marketplaces in the EU
At the end of 2020, the UK government announced a change to the rules of representation before the UKIPO. New trademark, design and patent applications and contentious actions at the UKIPO now require a 'UK address for service' to be appointed.
Brexit and IP: Understanding the UKIPO address for service rules change
For Novagraaf's roundtable last month, we gathered IP professionals from a range of industry sectors to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their IP strategies and operations. Download our white paper to read the key findings from that discussion.
Tracking the impact of COVID-19 on IP professionals
In many jurisdictions, such as the EU and UK, brand owners can file trademark applications without any requirements to file evidence of use of their chosen mark. That is not to say that the ability to provide proof of use is not important.
Use it or lose it: The importance of using your trademarks
In 2018 kitchen cookware company Tefal applied to register its signature 'red dot' as a trademark in the UK. After appealing refusal, the application was recently rejected due to a lack of the fundamental element of distinctiveness, as Trainee Paralegal Megan Taylor explains.
Trademark trouble for Tefal’s red dot
In May 2021, Pakistan will join the Madrid System for international trademark registrations, becoming its 108th member state, as Frouke Hekker explains.
Pakistan to join international trademark system
A seniority claim allows the owner of a European trademark to claim prior rights based on existing EU national registrations. While a successful claim extends EUTMs back to the date of the earlier national registration, this doesn’t necessarily mean you should allow those rights to lapse, says Vanessa Harrow.
EUTMs and the benefits of a seniority claim
Dairy alternative Oatly has overcome objections to its slogan, ‘It’s like milk, but made for humans’, potentially offering a new way for vegan and vegetarian brands to protect plant-based trademarks in the EU.
Oatly slogan succeeds where other plant-based trademark applications have failed
In response to a 2019 CJEU decision on collective marks, INTA has filed an amicus brief before EUIPO’s Grand Board of Appeal to set out its views on genuine use. Doddy Wolfs explains what the ruling and INTA’s submission could mean for owners of collective marks.
Collective marks in the EU: What constitutes genuine use?
Since the UK left the EU on 31 December 2020, UK-based businesses and citizens are no longer eligible to own or renew .eu domain name registrations, as UK Trademark Attorney Laura Morrish explains.
Brexit and domain names: Leave.EU's EU move
Read answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about Brexit and IP, from cloning of EU trademark and design rights to conversions, renewals, representation, customs applications, geographical indications, SPCs and much more.
Brexit and IP: Your FAQs answered