Organisation: European Economic Area

The Committee for Unfair Competition has found that the purchase and use of a competitor’s trademark as a Google AdWord constituted a breach of Section 25 of the Norwegian Marketing Control Act. According to the committee, such use of a competitor’s trademark is not in compliance with good business practice.

12 March 2013

The UK IPO has published responses to the consultation on the reform of the UK designs legal framework submitted by a range of interested parties, including design-focused small and medium-sized enterprises and legal representatives. They were largely supportive of the government’s proposals to simplify current legislation and harmonise UK and EU regimes, and to update and revise dispute resolution, enforcement and sanctions procedures.

25 February 2013

In <i>Oracle America Inc (Formerly Sun Microsystems Inc) v M-Tech Data Ltd</i>, the Supreme Court has allowed an appeal against a Court of Appeal decision in which the latter had held that a parallel importer's 'Euro-defences' under Articles 34 to 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the EU principle of abuse of rights had a 'real prospect of success'.

11 July 2012

The Italian registry, Registro.it, has announced two forthcoming changes to the registration rules as of July 11 2012 - namely, the extension of the eligibility zone for ‘.it’ domain names to six new European countries, and the introduction of IDNs. It appears that there will not be a sunrise period for trademark holders to protect their marks; brand owners are thus advised to secure the Italian IDNs corresponding to their brands as soon as possible.

09 July 2012

The Ukrainian Institute of Industrial Property has upheld a decision of the Appellate Board in which the latter had held that Celgene Corporation’s trademark THALIDOMIDE CELGENE should be registered for a limited list of goods, with a disclaimer for 'thalidomide'. The decision is significant in that it clarifies the institute’s practice with regard to the registration of trademarks containing INNs.

10 May 2012

The German Federal Supreme Court has issued two important decisions concerning the burden of proving that products are genuine and the doctrine of exhaustion of trademark rights. These decisions could represent a major boost for trademark owners in their fight against counterfeiting and parallel imports.

07 May 2012

In <i>Adobe Systems Incorporated v Netcom Online.Co.UK Ltd</i>, the High Court has considered a consent agreement that had become not so much the end of an old dispute as the beginning of a new one. Among other things, the court held that there was no reason to think that the ECJ had intended to give the impression that consent orders would be open to attack, so far as they concerned damages for an acknowledged breach of a property right, based on an infraction of competition law.

05 April 2012

On December 6 2011 AFNIC will open up the ‘.fr’ TLD to all entities based in the European Union. The same will apply to the other French TLDs delegated to AFNIC. The liberalisation has a consequence for non-EU entities as, unless they have an office or branch based in the European Union, they will no longer be able to register ‘.fr’ domain names, even if they hold a trademark valid in France.

22 November 2011