In our latest round-up, we look at NatWest launching on Apple’s Vision Pro, the United Kingdom appointing a new minister responsible for intellectual property, and more.
The TTAB has denied Monster Energy Company’s petition for cancellation of a golden PREDATOR mark and instead granted a summary judgment in connection with the claim the owner did not have a bona fide intent to use.
The TTAB decision to affirm the likelihood of confusion refusal of HOLLYWOOD COFFEE CO for retail services highlights the importance of following the rules for entering third-party registrations into the record and shows that “something more” is not required to show relatedness between two types of service.
In our previous coverage of the dispute over the Havana Club brand, we noted that the resumption of legal proceedings would make the US Federal District Court the key battleground. However, following a combative US House of Representatives hearing on confiscated property in Cuba, it is clear that it remains a hot-button issue in political circles.
12 February 2016
Carlsberg’s local branding of Tuborg beer in Myanmar stirred up controversy last month, which ultimately sent the company back to the drawing board. While experts suggest that the critics threatening legal action against the brewer probably had no case, this transliteration mishap shows that – despite the lack of a trademark law – companies need to tread carefully when choosing a local brand name in Myanmar.
11 February 2016
The Board of Appeal has overturned an Estonian Patent Office decision finding that the mark GRILLCUBE was descriptive and lacked distinctive character. The Board of Appeal found that for a refusal, the meaning of the mark should describe some essential characteristics of the goods.
11 February 2016
In <i>Nestlé v Cadbury</i> the High Court dismissed Nestlé’s appeal against the registrar of trademarks’ refusal to register the shape of a Kit Kat chocolate bar following an analysis of the European Court of Justice ruling on the applicable test for proving acquired distinctiveness.
10 February 2016
Famous Colombian football player Carlos <i>‘el Pibe’</i> Valderrama filed an opposition against the application to register the trademark TODO BIEN for “Soft drinks and energizing drinks” in Class 32.
08 February 2016
The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a state-owned Russian company can sue US distributors of Stolichnaya vodka for infringement of a federal trademark registration under Section 32(1) of the Lanham Act.
05 February 2016
In assessing likelihood of confusion, whether a conceptual similarity arises must be decided on a case-by-case basis. As a recent General Court decision confirms, the more general the words, the higher the risk of a likelihood of confusion.
01 February 2016
In <i>Perfetti van Melle Benelux BV v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM)</i> (Case T-491/13, December 16 2015), the General Court dismissed the applicant’s action against registration of the intervener’s word mark TRIDENT PURE. According to the General Court, there was no likelihood of confusion.
25 January 2016
In his first media interview on the matter, given exclusively to <i>World Trademark Review</i>, Ian FitzSimons, general counsel of Pernod Ricard, has expanded on the news that Cubaexport has received a specific licence allowing it to renew the Havana Club trademark registration in the United States. While a positive development for the company, he tells us that the dispute with Bacardi over the brand name is basically back to where it was in 2006.
22 January 2016
In <i>Hikari Miso v OHMI - Nishimoto Trading</i> (T‑751/14) the General Court ruled that a low degree of similarity of the goods at issue did not preclude a likelihood of confusion.
21 January 2016
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