Tag:Europe

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Upcoming UKIPO Representation Changes – The Effects of Brexit Continue
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WIPO Updates Deadlines for Responses to Provisional Refusals
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UK Trade Mark and Design Reform Consultation
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Just Because the Court can, Doesn’t Mean it will: The Difficulty in Seeking to Avoid an Injunction Following a Finding of Copyright Infringement in the UK
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A Lidl Decision with big Implications – UK High Court Finds that Tesco’s Clubcard Logo Infringes Lidl’s logo
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Nothing more than Empty Words: The Difficulty with Registering Slogans as Trade Marks in the EU
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Technical Effect Embodied in Technical Teaching
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H2 Production: A Shift Towards Electrolysis
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Why CMA, What Large Teeth you (Could) Have! Take Care to Heed the ASA and CMA’s Warnings Against Misleading Advertising
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CJEU Paves the way for Red-Soled Heels to Widen the Scope of Liability of E-Commerce Platforms

Upcoming UKIPO Representation Changes – The Effects of Brexit Continue

One of the effects of Brexit was that the UK introduced a requirement for a UK based representative for all UK national trade marks, patents and designs and international registrations designating the UK in January 2021. However, there was a grace period for comparable trade marks or re-registered designs deriving from an EU national trade mark or international registration designating the EU.

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WIPO Updates Deadlines for Responses to Provisional Refusals

Businesses seeking registration of trade marks overseas will have greater clarity on deadlines for responding to provisional refusals, following an update by the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO). As of 1 November 2023, local intellectual property offices are required to give the holders of Madrid System international trade mark registrations (IR Holders) a minimum period of 60 days or two months to respond to provisional refusals.

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UK Trade Mark and Design Reform Consultation

The UKIPO Transformation Programme

The UKIPO launched a transformation programme to modernise their trade mark and design services by the end of 2025. The aim is to replace their existing processes with a fully digitalised system in line with increased volume of work and customer demand.

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Just Because the Court can, Doesn’t Mean it will: The Difficulty in Seeking to Avoid an Injunction Following a Finding of Copyright Infringement in the UK

As reported previously in our blog post here, earlier this year the High Court of England and Wales found in Lidl’s favour regarding allegations of trade mark infringement, passing off and copyright infringement by Tesco. However, Tesco has suffered a further loss following a supplementary hearing focused on what the most appropriate form of relief was for copyright infringement (although it was agreed by the parties that Lidl was entitled to an injunction in light of findings of trade mark infringement and passing off).

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A Lidl Decision with big Implications – UK High Court Finds that Tesco’s Clubcard Logo Infringes Lidl’s logo

In a recent decision, the High Court of England and Wales has found that Tesco’s use of the yellow and blue Tesco Clubcard logos (reproduced below) infringed Lidl’s trade marks (see the relevant Lidl marks below) and also gave rise to copyright infringement and passing off.

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Nothing more than Empty Words: The Difficulty with Registering Slogans as Trade Marks in the EU

Companies continue to face difficulties in achieving EU trade mark protection for their slogans. In separate recent decisions of the EU General Court, two trade mark applications relating to advertising slogans were rejected on the grounds that the marks lacked the ‘distinctive character’ required to be registerable under Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation 2017/1001. These two decisions join a long list of case law rejecting similar applications.

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Technical Effect Embodied in Technical Teaching

European Patent Office: Enlarged Board of Appeal decision G2/21

The Enlarged Board of Appeal EBoA is the highest judicial authority under the European Patent Convention. It handles patent examination for about 37 member states including the EU. The EBoA has recently published its decision G2/21 dealing with the principle of free evaluation of evidence in the context of inventive step. This decision is relevant for patents in the pharma, biotech and life science field.

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H2 Production: A Shift Towards Electrolysis

Hydrogen production technology, according to the joint EPO-IEA report summarizing patent trends in the hydrogen economy (summarized here), accounts for the largest percentage of patenting activity since 2011 among the three primary stages of the hydrogen value chain (i.e., (i) production, (ii) storage, distribution, and transformation, and (iii) end-use industrial applications). Trends show a shift in hydrogen production from carbon-intensive methods to technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels. The bulk of recent increased patent activity is directed to electrolysis development, while patent activity related to production from biomass and waste has decreased.

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Why CMA, What Large Teeth you (Could) Have! Take Care to Heed the ASA and CMA’s Warnings Against Misleading Advertising

In the UK, we have seen an increase in regulator activism, and particularly, in relation to advertising misleading consumers. This can be seen in the recent spate of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) investigations and a whole host of the UK Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) decisions. Companies will need to take extra care as the CMA may get some (very large) new teeth from the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill (“Bill”).

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CJEU Paves the way for Red-Soled Heels to Widen the Scope of Liability of E-Commerce Platforms

A recent preliminary ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in the joint cases (C-148/21 and C-184/21) between a luxury fashion brand known for its signature red-soled heels Christian Louboutin and an e-commerce giant Amazon might mark a start of an era of increased accountability of marketplaces in relation to listings of third parties they accommodate on their platforms.

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