News & Publications

The Judgment of the General Court of 14 June 2016, in the case Loops, LLC versus EUIPO, discusses the distinctive character of the following three-dimensional mark:

The Judgement of the General Court of 7 April 2016 resolves the appeal filed by the company Industrias Tomás Morcillo, S.L. against the resolution of the Board of Appeal refusing the registration of the mark requested

Judgement of the General Court, 8 April 2016. Case T-638/14 Frinsa del Noroeste, S.A. vs European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

In its Judgement of 24 February 2016, the General Court examines the distinctive character of the three-dimensional Community trade mark applied for by The Coca Cola Company, rejected by both the Examiner as well as the Board of Appeal of OHIM, and which resolves the appeal against the examiner's decision.

Riesgo de confusión. Artículo 8, apartados 1, letra b), y 5, del Reglamento (CE) nº 207/2009: “Cuando, por ser idéntica o similar a la marca anterior y por ser idénticos o similares los productos o servicios que ambas marcas designan, exista riesgo de confusión por parte del público en el territorio en que esté protegida la marca anterior; el riesgo de confusión incluye el riesgo de asociación con la marca anterior”.

The COINTREAU Company filed a claim for infringement of the international, three-dimensional trade mark Nº 553.499 consisting of a bottle with certain features for Classes 32 and 33 with effect in Spain, against the companies Vidirerías Masip, S.A., Licores Deva, S.A. and Destilerías La Vallesana, S.A. for the manufacture and marketing of a liqueur presented in a bottle basically identical to that of the mentioned brand, COINTREAU, without their authorisation.   The plaintiffs opposed this…

In its Judgement of 4 February 2016, the Court of Justice resolved the following preliminary ruling question: Does the first sentence of Article 23.1 of the (EC) Council Regulation 207/2009, of 26 February 2009, referring to a Community trade mark, “Legal acts referred to in Articles 17, 19 and 22 concerning a Community trade mark shall have effects vis-à-vis third parties in all the Member States only after entry in the Register” preclude a licensee who is not entered in the Register from…

Descriptive character.  Article 71)(c), and 2, of Regulation (EC) Nº 207/2009: “the registration of trade marks which consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin or the time of production of the goods or of rendering of the service, or other characteristics of the goods or service will be refused registration”.  Zitro IP Sàrl submitted an application for the registration of a…

The regulation of rights to so called employee inventions can take place both under the Patent Act as well as the Labour Law. To do so under the Patent Act in some way involves confining the regulation to the field of patentable inventions, with those inventions that have not been patented being left out, either due to a lack of patentability requirements or due to this specific protection having been waived. The regulation under the framework of the labour law raises the issue of possible…

On January 23 of this month, the Court of Justice of the EU will dicide on certain issues relating to technological measures implemented by Nintendo to protect their rights (at least this is the purpose stated by Nintendo), giving response to preliminary ruling made by the Court of Milan. The case processing before the Court of Milan is about consoles “DS” and “Wii” manufactured by Nintendo and Nintendo games (or those authorized by Nintendo) which are recorded on data cartridges and DVD…

The fact that the law allows partners to establish “all the pacts and conditions that the founding partners deem appropriate, as long as they are not contrary to the law, and the defining regulatory principles of the chosen social type” (art. 28 TRLSC) in the articles of incorporation and the by-laws is often overlooked. The possibility of including pacts and conditions as a mean to express the autonomy of the will means that there is not precise knowledge about the limits of that autonomy of…