Features
On May 23 2017 World Trademark Review announced the winners of the 11th WTR Industry Awards at an exclusive ceremony at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Barcelona. The awards are designed to recognise the vital work carried out by in-house trademark counsel and identify the teams and individuals that are performing their functions to the highest possible standards. In the following articles we speak to the winners and explain why they were judged to be the leading examples of industry best practice.
The global user base of social networks continues to grow, and so too does the need for robust IP enforcement online. We asked leading platforms to advise on how brand owners can get the most out of their IP rights tools
Five years on from the introduction of new generic top-level domains, more and more ‘.brands’ are going live, giving potential applicants the opportunity to assess their current deployment
In the second of a two-part series, we profile markets which were omitted from the Office of the US Trade Representative’s Notorious Markets List, but which brand owners should have on their radars. This issue, we turn our attention to Asia and Africa
Amendments to the Trademarks Act will likely come into force in 2019. Brand owners should prepare and improve their strategies for protection, trademark acquisition and enforcement in opposition venues
While licensing offers a range of benefits to brand owners, there are numerous pitfalls to avoid. From partner selection to terminations, licensors must take care to ensure that their extensions are win-wins rather than costly missteps
Recent changes to EU trademark law have made it easier to take action against infringing trade names. But how should companies approach situations in which the alleged infringer is an individual trading under his or her own name?
Disclosure is often one of the first steps in any IP dispute, yet the rules across different jurisdictions can be confusing, as a comparison of the regimes in England and Wales, France and the United States demonstrates
Coexistence agreements can be a more palatable solution to disputes than litigation. However, while China’s Trademark Law allows coexistence under certain circumstances, there are risks of which all parties should bear in mind
Columns
In Varsity Brands v Star Athletica the US Supreme Court both provided answers and raised more questions surrounding design-related copyright
Much has been written about the rise of so-called ‘patent trolls’, but a similar phenomenon arguably exists in the trademark world. For brand professionals, the key to counteracting this threat is careful strategising from the outset
Trademark-related quotes, opinions and observations from around the globe
News
Country correspondent
In the social media age, protection for personality rights can be found in Canadian trademark law under the torts of misappropriation of personality and passing off, and privacy statutes
Much progress has been made in recent years when it comes to protecting name and image rights, and to fighting against bad-faith registrations in China
Italian law establishes a robust and far-sighted legal regime for the protection of image rights – which are viewed as an aspect of privacy and thus a fundamental human right
Image rights are designed to protect a person’s appearance and ensure privacy. Although they are similar to IP rights, they are in fact regulated by different rules
Modern technology raises a number of issues surrounding celebrities’ online publicity rights. Without relevant legislation, jurisprudence has evolved through various court decisions
The appeal court opinion in Maloney v T3 Media highlights the limitations on publicity rights when claims are pre-empted under the US Copyright Act
In Germany, admissibility of the publication of images rests on the facts of the case. Recent Federal Court of Justice case law could offer guidance on the extent of the right to control one’s own image
Publicity and image rights in Mexico are protected through different legal statutes, all based on the constitutional rights to privacy, freedom of speech and expression
Roundtable
Experts from Canada, the United States and Venezuela discuss cutting-edge strategies for the creation, protection and exploitation of brands in the pharmaceutical industry
