Five things you need to know – Europe

Albania

The General Directorate of Industrial Property has published a notice for public consultation on proposed amendments to the Law on Industrial Property. The draft law proposes to introduce the protection of trade secrets, the establishment of a database system for industrial property rights and regulatory instruments for the protection of industrial property rights by the State Inspectorate on Market Supervision (SIMS). The latter would see the SIMS responsible for monitoring the observance of IP rights if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that goods placed on the market in Albania violate such rights, following the release of the goods into free circulation by the customs authorities.

Denmark

The Danish Parliament has passed the Product and Market Surveillance Law, which concerns product safety and provides increased powers to the authorities to take action against online retailers. The legislation supplements the EU Market Surveillance and Compliance of Products Regulation (1020/2019). Online retailers with operations in Denmark face severe penalties if they fail to follow the product safety rules set forth by the regulation, which includes blocking access to their platform.

European Union

Italian supercar manufacturer Ferrari has had a trademark for the shape of its 250 GTO car partially revoked, after the mark was contested by Ares Design at the Cancellation Division of the EUIPO. Ares Design initially lodged the opposition because of its intent to manufacture a modern version of the 250 GTO. Ferrari could not adequately prove its use of the mark, having not produced its version of the car since 1964. The mark, filed in 2007, was therefore revoked in Classes 12 and 25, with Ferrari keeping the rights to use the mark in relation to toy vehicles.

Poland

Five specialised IP courts – located in Gdańsk, Katowice, Lublin, Poznań and Warsaw – have opened in Poland. The courts are equipped to handle trademark matters and provision for a case to merit being held before the new courts and with professional representation will be if the value of the case is above Zl20,000 (around $5,000).

United Kingdom

A UK High Court judgment has given both parties in the high-profile Sky v Skykick case permission to appeal, keeping the long-running dispute alive. The case was originally brought by Sky against US-based cloud management software provider SkyKick for alleged trademark infringement. However, SkyKick counterclaimed that Sky’s marks were too broadly filed and that this constituted bad faith. In January 2020 the Court of Justice of the European Union decided that Sky’s trademark application was made without intent to use in relation to all goods and services specified. The UK High Court subsequently partially invalidated Sky’s trademarks. However, the dispute is now set to continue.