Work Area: Trademark law

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Registering 3D Marks in China

Featured in China: Managing the IP Lifecycle 2023

Conventional 2D trademarks that are deemed indistinct can obtain distinctiveness with the addition of unique features. For instance, a mark containing the single letter ‘M’ in plain form is deemed to be indistinctive; however, if the letter is sufficiently stylised, such as in the case of the golden arches symbol of McDonald’s, it can obtain distinctiveness. It has, therefore, been debated whether 3D marks in similar situations can be treated similarly. The laws governing the issue have evolved over time in China.

02 November 2022

Trademarks and the brain: how neuroscience can show that a word is functioning as a brand

A new research paper is urging more research into how neuroscience could transform modern trademark law, and especially around the functionality of brands.

25 October 2022

Greece: Trademark procedures and strategies

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

Unregistered signs are protected under Articles 13 to 15 of the Unfair Competition Law in Greece and may constitute relative grounds for refusal. In particular, protection is offered to signs that are deemed to have become a distinctive feature of the goods or services that they cover.

21 October 2022

Sidestepping the Rogers two-step: clearing entertainment titles in a crowded social space

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

For more than three decades, entertainment companies have relied on Rogers v Grimaldi to insulate themselves from Lanham Act claims when a mark or name is used in an entertainment title. The court in Rogers held that the Lanham Act did not apply to the use of celebrity names in a film title “unless [1] the title has no artistic relevance to the underlying work whatsoever, or, [2] if it has some artistic relevance, unless the title explicitly misleads as to the source or content of the work” (Rogers, paragraph 999).

21 October 2022

El Salvador: Trademark procedures and strategies

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

In February 2019, the Administrative Procedures Law became effective to unify procedures and recourses across the executive branch. The new law affects many procedures managed by the RIP, benefiting trademark holders providing certainty, shorter terms for government officials to resolve petitions filed, extensions of time to file documents and setting sanctions to government officials that do not observe the new terms, among other things.

21 October 2022

Mexico: Trademark procedures and strategies

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

Registration and enforcement of trademark rights in Mexico is regulated by a framework of local laws, regulations, treaties and precedents on specific legal loopholes or procedural matters. Prosecution of applications, protection and maintenance of trademark registrations, as well as dispute procedures, are administered in accordance with the Mexican Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (the IP Law), which entered into effect on 5 November 2020.

21 October 2022

Brands in Africa: the dos and the don’ts

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

For brand owners, it makes sense to identify the business opportunity first and secure deals before thinking of brand protection. However, in an African context, it is prudent to secure protection of trademarks sooner rather than later.

21 October 2022

Spain: Trademark procedures and strategies

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

Distinctive signs are principally governed by the Trademark Act, which was partially modified by Royal Decree-Law 23/2018 to incorporate Directive (EU) 2015/2436. This is complemented by Royal Decree 687/2002, which was modified by Royal Decree 306/2019 to adapt to the Trademark Act as amended. At an international level, the Trademark Act has adapted Spanish law to the general legal framework established within the international community.

21 October 2022

Benelux: Trademark procedures and strategies

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

The Benelux Convention on Intellectual Property does not provide for protection of unregistered trademarks, the only exception being the protection of well-known marks as prescribed by the Paris Convention. When no registration exists, no trademark rights can be invoked. Timely registration is therefore of the essence.

21 October 2022

Poland: Trademark procedures and strategies

Featured in World Trademark Review Yearbook 2022/2023

In Poland, a trademark can be applied for and owned by a natural or legal person, or by organisational entities that are not legal persons but in which a statute vests legal capacity.  Persons whose place of residence or registered office is not located within the territory of the European Union, a European Free Trade Association member state, a party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or Switzerland must act through a patent agent, attorney or legal counsel.

21 October 2022

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