Trade Mark Law - Assessment of distinctive character of a sign consisting of coloured motifs applied on transport vehicles: in particular, account should be taken of perception by the relevant public and not necessary to examine whether that sign departs significantly from the norm or customs of the economic sector...

Trade Mark Law - A person operating in the course of trade that has arranged for an advertisement which infringes another person’s trade mark to be placed on a website is not using a sign which is identical with that trade mark when: the operators of other websites reproduce that advertisement by placing it online, on...

Press release from the General Court of the European Union in case BBQLOUMI (CJEU, 20 January 2021, T-328/17).

From the press release: "  The Foundation for the Protection of the Traditional Cheese of Cyprus named Halloumi is the proprietor of the EU collective mark HALLOUMI, registered for cheese. An EU...

Patent law - Scope of protection. The reformulated (guideline) questions for finding infringement are as follows: i) Notwithstanding that it is not within the literal meaning of the relevant claim(s) of the patent, does the variant achieve substantially the same result in substantially the same way as the invention, ie...

Trade Mark Law - The date with regard to which it must be determined whether the continuous period of five years has ended is the date on which the application or counterclaim in question was filed: assessment with regard to the date of the last hearing would be against the consequences of revocation as provided for in...

Trade Mark Law -  The Cancellation Division rejects Looplabb's application for a declaration of the invalidity of the shape mark filed by Izipizi. The EUIPO considers that the criteria for assessing distinctiveness are the same for the various categories of marks. However, the relevant public's perception of different...

Trade Mark Law - Litigation - “Electrical energy” has not been wrongly excluded of the goods in Class 4 of the eighth edition of the classification of Nice: the argument that the General Court failed to adopt a ‘functional’ approach is unfounded, however, as rightly held by the General Court in paragraph 29 of the...

Trade Mark Law - A trade mark has been put to 'genuine use' for all goods if it is used for certain of the goods, such as very high priced luxury sports cars or only for parts or accessories of certain of the goods: the mere fact that cars for which a trade mark has been used may belong to a specific market of 'sports...

Protected designation of origin - Article 13(1) of Regulation No 1151/2012 (PDO scope of protection) covers, in a broad sense, all acts which may mislead the consumer as to the true origin of the product concerned: does not merely prohibit the use by a third party of the registered name and prohibits the reproduction...

In 2014, the artist, represented by the company Pest Control Services, applied for an EU trademark of the image 'Flower Thrower' to prevent the use of this piece by a greeting card company. The latter found that they were allowed to use the work because the maker is anonymous. Because of the anonymity, Banksy cannot...

Trade Mark Law - In 2011, Lionel Messi filed an application for registration of the shown figurative sign as an EU trade mark for sports clothing, footwear and equipment. An opposition was filed based on the EU word mark MASSI. The opposition was upheld by the EUIPO. The General Court however found that that the...

Opinion of Advocate General Szpunar. With the consent of the rightholder, a work has been made available on a freely accessible website. A third party has placed this work on his website by way of framing, while the rightholder has taken protection measures against framing. The third party has circumvented these...

Copyright - Related Rights - Articles 2 to 5 of Directive 2001/29 must be interpreted as meaning that the copyright protection provided for therein applies to a product whose shape is, at least in part, necessary to obtain a technical result: the product must be an original work resulting from intellectual creation...

Trade mark law - The Trade Mark Directive leaves Member States the option of allowing the proprietor of a trade mark whose rights in that mark have been revoked on expiry of the five-year period from its registration to make genuine use of the mark to retain the right to claim compensation for the injury sustained as a...

Trade mark law - In order to establish whether a sign consists exclusively of the shape of goods which is necessary to obtain a technical result, assessment does not have to be limited to the graphic representation of that sign: other relevant factors such as the perception of the relevant public can also be taken into...

Private International Law - Article 8(2)(a) of Directive 2004/48 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights must be interpreted as meaning that the term 'addresses' contained in that provision does not oblige platforms such as Youtube, in respect of a user who has uploades files which infringe an intellectual...

Trade mark law - A natural person who has imported - without the consent of the proprietor of the trade mark that is affixed to them - ball bearings weighing 710 kg on behalf of a third party and has retained and stored them, prior to their being uplifted for onward shipment to a non-Member State in exchange for a...

Copyright - According to Advocate General Saugmandsgaard Øe, online platfors like Youtube are - as EU law currently stands - not directly liable for the illegal uploading of protected works by the users of those platforms.

As you may know, Directive 2019/790 introduces a new liability regime specific to works...

Privacy - Press release CJEU: “Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2016/1250 of 12 July 2016 pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Privacy Shield is invalid.”

“On 15 May 2020 at its Annual Meeting, the European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT) appointed Leythem Wall as its new President for the 2020-2022 term. EPLIT is an association for European patent attorneys, whose objectives are for promoting their participation in user friendly, fair, efficient and cost effective...