Chiquita Brands queens it over Red Queen – General Court, 29 May 2024, T-79/23 The General Court (GC) has annulled another Board of Appeal decision. That in itself is worth reporting as this happens in only about 15% of cases. The Court held that, contrary to the Board’s decision, and despite both marks covering identical goods (fresh fruit), the EUTM consisting of the figurative mark Red Queen shown above was not confusingly similar to the word mark CHIQUITA QUEEN. The Board of Appeal had held otherwise. Assessing the case from the perspective of the Spanish speaking public, the Board consid ..read more

Diesel SPA (hereafter Diesel Italy) began selling jeans in Italy in 1978. The jeans were sold in Ireland from 1982 onward. In the intervening years, a company based in Monaghan also started to produce jeans under the name Diesel (hereafter referred to as Diesel Ireland). When Diesel Italy applied to register a word and a device mark in Ireland, their applications were opposed by Diesel Ireland. The first-instance decision on the Diesel Italy application and Opposition thereto, was made at a hearing in May 2012. The opponent’s central arguments were: that Diesel Italy was not the proprietor of ..read more

The judgment of the General Court (GC) concerns a textbook case and addresses the typical arguments in trademark conflicts in the cosmetics sector. Facts The Applicant, Azalee Cosmetics, applied for registration of the following sign as an EU trademark for cosmetic products (class 3), cosmetic utensils (class 21), corresponding retail services (class 35) and beauty treatments (class 44):   The Intervener, L’Oréal (UK) Limited, filed an opposition based on its earlier EU word mark LIBRE, registered for perfumes in class 3. The Opposition Division assumed a likelihood of confusion and lar ..read more

UEFA, governing body of European football (a role that came into spotlight in the recent Super League case, not an IP case, see C-333/21), is slowly turning their attention to Germany, where the European football championship will be held this summer. The tournament’s official name is ‘(UEFA) EURO 2024’, which should come as no surprise, given that the same event has been called ‘EURO + [Year]’ since England hosted it in 1996. No surprise that UEFA started preparing for the event early, with trademark registration being an important part of the process. Leaving nothing to chance, UEFA first ap ..read more

All trademark news that you might have missed last month in one convenient overview. Read up on the latest news reported by the Kluwer IP Reporter. Australia implements Madrid Goods and Services list With effect from 26 March 2024 the Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia) transitioned from the current Trade Marks Goods and Services list (AU picklist) to the Madrid Goods and Services (MGS) list, a database widely used by the World Intellectual Property Agency (WIPO) and various other international trademark offices. Read the full story here Clarification on trademark protect ..read more

In the third (and final) of our blogs reporting on the UK Court of Appeal decision in Lidl v Tesco, we examine the findings in relation to non-use revocation. At first instance, the judge found that certain trade mark registrations filed by Lidl in 1995, 2002, 2005 and 2007 for its ‘logo without text’ (the “Wordless Mark”) were all filed in bad faith – on the principle that Lidl was avoiding potential non-use revocation by way of ‘evergreening’. These logos had been filed at regular intervals with a duplicated specification of goods and services.   Lidl’s Trade Mark Registrations 199 ..read more

This is the second of three blogs examining the recent UK Court of Appeal decision in Lidl v Tesco[1]. As reported in our first blog, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s finding of trade mark infringement and passing off by Tesco in respect of Tesco’s use of a blue and yellow sign for its Clubcard promotions ..read more

On April 2nd, the EUIPO has publicly announced the first referral by the Executive Director to the Grand Board of Appeal pursuant to Article 159(4)(l) of the EUTMR n.  2017/1001 in conjunction with Article 37(4) and (5) of EUTMDR n. 2018/625   (see at https://www.euipo.europa.eu/es/news/first-referral-of-questions-by-the-executive-director-to-the-grand-board-of-appeal ). The main issue regards the Board of Appeal (BOA) decision in ‘NIGHTWATCH’ case (R 1241/2020-4 of 26/09/2022 – see here our previous comment). The BOA, diverging from EUIPO Guidelines, allowed the conversion of a ..read more

All trademark news that you might have missed last month in one convenient overview. Read up on the latest news reported by the Kluwer IP Reporter. Belize’s trademark data now available on TMview With effect from 26 February 2024, the Belize Intellectual Property Office (BELIPO) made its trade mark data available via TMview, an online search tool that allows users to access the databases of all participating trademark offices Read the full story here China enhances GI protection measures To strengthen the accreditation, management and protection of Geographical Indication (GI) products, the C ..read more

My 20-year old son Victor has started reading Homer’s Iliad. When he is done, I will suggest him the reading of the whole HALLOUMI story, which is as epic as the ancient poems. Epics are the stories on geographical indications from this part of Europe. The Greeks fought fiercely (and successfully) to consolidate a GI registration over the FETA cheese, and now has come the turn of Cyprus and its Halloumi cheese. The last episode of this story is the judgment delivered by the General Court on 21 February 2024 in Case T-361/21, Papouis Dairies Ltd (and others) v the European Commission. The Cour ..read more