Region: European Union

EUIPO Board of Appeal confirms that Kurt Geiger’s eagle head mark is not distinctive

The decision is interesting in that the Board of Appeal took judicial notice of many “well-known facts” concerning the jewellery sector.

02 July 2024

Blow for Google as General Court confirms likelihood of confusion between GPAY and EPAY

The court dismissed Google’s argument that the initial letter ‘G’ in its GPAY mark played a significant distinctive – and potentially dominant – role in that mark.

01 July 2024

Battle between Nike and Puma over FOOTWARE: General Court issues its decision

The court has confirmed that FOOTWARE refers to the ‘intended purpose’ of the relevant goods and services, which is a characteristic expressly listed in Article 7(1)(c).

28 June 2024

Blow for Société du Tour de France in TOUR DE X opposition

In a “particularly severe” decision, the General Court confirmed that there was no likelihood of confusion between TOUR DE X and the earlier TOUR DE FRANCE marks.

27 June 2024

General Court: Board of Appeal erred in assessing distinctiveness of ULTRA for beer

In this dispute between competing breweries Anheuser-Busch and Amstel, the court found that ‘ultra’ was a generic, laudatory term which was incapable of differentiating the commercial origin of the goods.

26 June 2024

Filings decline at CIPO, while most of Europe and North America sees growth

WTR analyses trademark filing trends at major North American and European registers.

25 June 2024

Morality v freedom of expression: the COVIDIOT decision

This decision of the EUIPO’s Grand Board may be seen as a ‘high-water mark’ in applying the Article 7 absolute grounds for refusal.

25 June 2024

EUIPO considers genuine use of 3D bottle shape mark

When assessing the evidence of genuine use, individual pieces of evidence should not be analysed in isolation, but together, in order to identify their most likely and coherent significance.

24 June 2024

General Court provides primer on scope of review and genuine use

An accumulation of items of evidence may allow the necessary facts to be established, even though each of those items, taken individually, would be insufficient to prove genuine use.

21 June 2024

Meet the IP Hall of Fame inductees of 2024 – Klaus Grabinski

As the most senior judge at Europe’s new Unified Patent Court, Klaus Grabinski has the eyes of the world’s patent profession on him.

20 June 2024