Sector: Internet and Online

The Athens Administrative Court has held that the national registration for GNETWORK was filed in bad faith and intended to take advantage of Google’s notoriety, thereby running the risk of weakening its distinctive power. The court reversed the decision of the Administrative Trademark Committee, accepted the recourse and ordered the cancellation of GNETWORK from the register.

08 December 2016

Intel Security’s McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Predictions Report focuses on the cybersecurity challenges facing all organisations and is important reading for those in the IT sector. However, while not written for a trademark counsel audience, it highlights a number of issues that both mark owners and the law firms that work with them need to be alive to – not least attacks that directly erode brand trust.

30 November 2016

Following an investigation by <i>World Trademark Review</i>, leading crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has been labelled “a treasure trove of product designs for would-be counterfeiters and copycats” by a brand protection expert. The investigation found that countless popular crowdfunding projects are being copied and sold on major online marketplaces – often before the legitimate product is available to buy.

17 November 2016

New research from The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse has revealed the extent of identity squatting targeting this year’s presidential election candidates, as well as members of the US Congress and Senate.

08 November 2016

New research suggests that IP cyber theft incidents are expected to rise over the next 12 months. Reflecting the need for law firm practitioners to implement cyber breach plans, and for in-house trademark counsel to evaluate – and require – the response planning of partners, we are pleased to announce a one-hour webinar designed to provide critical knowledge and guidance on this increasingly important issue.

27 October 2016

A new index has been launched emphasising brand performance according to ‘new world’ factors such as social media engagement, adaptability to new trends and technologies and interaction with consumers. But the absence of metrics relating to trademarks means that it overlooks a critical component of brand value.

24 October 2016

The recent judgment of the Delhi High Court which recognised and upheld the well-known trademark YAHOO of Yahoo! Inc, while passing an order of permanent injunction against the defendant and granting damages of Rs 3.2 million and costs of Rs 0.64 million in favour of the plaintiff, is an illustration of the recent trend to safeguard and protect the IP assets of a company.

21 October 2016

Criticism of the availability of counterfeits on Amazon has been turned up a notch after Apple suggested that as much as 90% of items being sold as genuine Apple products by the e-tailer are fakes. The claim was made in a lawsuit filed by Apple in the Northern District of California this week, in which it accuses a company named Mobile Star LLC of trademark infringement.

20 October 2016

The World Intellectual Property Organisation Arbitration and Mediation Centre has recently issued an important decision after Facebook Inc filed a complaint against Master Inc in order to obtain the transfer of the domain name ‘facebook.com.pe’.

19 October 2016

Popular YouTube user Thinknoodles, who has over 1.7 million subscribers, has spoken out over the perceived inadequacy of brand protection measures available for YouTube channels, hitting out at this week’s decision to modify the site's ‘verified’ tick. He contends that the most popular channels face a significant challenge in tackling copycat accounts, and that a crowdsourced effort may streamline this burdensome process.

14 October 2016