A new academic paper argues that Amazon has upended the US trademark system with little public recognition, and that questions about trademark law in the modern age need answering.
A deep dive into two Beijing High Court judgments indicates that a company’s use of its own mobile app constitutes trademark use and can therefore maintain registration in the face of cancellation or invalidation actions. Businesses should be aware of this when dealing with trademark challenges in China.
Data analysis reveals that individual esports games and teams have different approaches to trademark protection, with particular standout filers.
An internet security company’s trademark filings for the brand name of a rival organisation has caused an uproar in the technology community. While the company has now abandoned the applications, the PR storm surrounding the initial filings – exacerbated by its CEO”s “patronising” comments on the company’s public message board – demonstrates the need for effective messaging around trademark strategies.
28 June 2016
In a recent high profile case, Facebook secured a victory against a trademark squatter at the Beijing High People’s Court. This comes shortly after Apple was defeated in its iPhone trademark battle.
01 June 2016
Alibaba Group is poised to enter the market for trademark filing services through the launch of a platform called Chuangxin Bao. The relative lack of fanfare for the launch suggests a low-key start for the offering, but conversations at last week’s INTA Annual Meeting in Orlando suggest that those in the trademark industry, both inside and outside China, are watching closely.
31 May 2016
If this year’s technology predictions hold true, 2016 will be the year that virtual reality (VR) begins to break into the mainstream. As products from the likes of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Sony, HTC and Samsung add much-needed competition to a new generation of VR devices, one IP expert tells <i>World Trademark Review</i> that VR platforms and VR-related domains should now be on the policing schedule for most brand owners.
12 May 2016
Reports emerged over the weekend that Facebook had won a trademark dispute in China, despite the social network being blocked by Chinese authorities. While the mark’s registrant has argued that censorship of Facebook in China precludes it from being a well-known brand there, experts suggest that the court relied instead on the principle of bad faith to rule in the US company’s favour.
10 May 2016
The Federal Administrative Court has dismissed an appeal against a decision of the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property which partially refused to register a design trademark of Apple Inc showing a button form in a round circle.
28 April 2016
The Supreme Court has denied <i>certiorari</i> for the Ninth Circuit decision in <i>Multi Time Machine Inc v Amazon.com Inc</i>, which held that Amazon did not infringe MTM’s trademark in its presentation of other competing products in a consumer’s search results.
28 April 2016
Alibaba chairman Jack Ma has called on rivals JD.com and Tencent to ensure that they are cracking down on the sale of fake goods on e-commerce sites. JD.com subsequently hit back, noting that it “works with third parties, brands and governments who are genuinely focused on tackling counterfeits”. As the war of words continues, <i>World Trademark Review</i> takes a closer look at Alibaba’s current anti-counterfeiting collaborations in China.
08 April 2016
The ECJ has considered whether a trademark owner could establish that its mark had been infringed by a third party in an online ad originally published with its consent, but subsequently disseminated without its consent in circumstances where the third party had taken all reasonable steps to remove the ad from the Internet.
29 March 2016
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