Posts Tagged ‘trademarks’

In the early days of the internet when the web was like a small village which has just  one bread shop, one toy shop or one other type of store, it was understandable that businesses were drawn to names like toys.com or books.com or hotels.com as business names not just as domain names.  But with [...]

Fashionista-at-law reports the trade mark action brought against Crocs by Porsche over use of the name CAYMAN, which is one of Crocs’ best selling brands. The dispute arises because Porsche has a European Community Trade Mark for CAYMAN which among other things includes footwear as a classification.   The relevant descriptions are: Class 18: Leather and [...]

Have you ever seen cheap imitation perfumes on sale at market stalls or on the internet?  The ones that tend to look similar in their packaging or bottling to other up-market products? Well according to a recent decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) their manufacturers are in breach of trade mark law. Under [...]

Interest in this matter was heightened when the Ipkat took it up here.  Many people got in touch, and some have apparently contacted CTMFS directly to complain about the misleading nature of the pro forma invoices their clients receive. So, I am pleased to read on CTMFS’ FAQ a that on 13 May 2009, they [...]

What is a scam?  According to the consumer fraud reporting “A confidence trick, confidence game, or con for short (also known as a scam) is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons …. usually with the goal of financial or other gain…” The Intellectual Property Office devotes a whole page here warning IP [...]

We are alarmed by the increasing number of scammers that target trade mark applicants in the UK and the EU.  Clearly some people are misled into paying the fees otherwise the scams would not continue as they do. The scammers send unsolicited mail to new trade mark applicants with a document resembling an invoice, implying [...]

The EU Registry recently announced a fee reduction from €1,600 for an online application and registration in 3 classes to €900. A draft Regulation is currently being prepared for adoption by the Commission, following which it will be published in the Official Journal. The fee reductions will take effect the day after publication. This is [...]

We often receive enquiries from clients wanting to register their logos.  Few know what registration they want or what protection is available, so it seems worth looking at this question in this blog. Before explaining what legal methods are available to protect logos here are a few examples of the different types of logos that [...]

Having just purchased a pair of UGG boots from a website UGGBOOTSFORALL.COM.AU for my daughter’s birthday, I am surprised to hear they are not the genuine article. If I had been less busy, I might have delved more deeply before buying – particularly as most of the sites offering UGG boots on the web were [...]

As a result of a recent decision against Google in the USA, a new weapon should be considered by  trademark owners like Microsoft in the battle against cybersquatters.  If misspellings or other versions of trademarks are registered as domain names by third parties who are earning click revenue from Google’s adsense program,  suing Google may [...]