Region: Ireland

In <em>Savanagh Securities Limited v Cumann Lúthchleas Gael</em>, the applicant claimed that the registration of the mark GAA offended Section 7 of the Irish Trademarks Act because its proprietor is an unincorporated association which cannot own property in its own name.

03 May 2018

A hearing officer has refused Allenkey Fittings Limited's application to register ALLENKEYGUARD as a trademark, despite the fact that the level of disputed similarity did not reach the threshold for a likelihood of confusion, on the grounds that the mark violates Sections 8(4)(b), 10(3) and 10(4)(a) of the Trademarks Act for bad faith, unfair advantage and passing off.

17 October 2017

In <i>Nutrimedical BV v Nualtra Ltd</i> the High Court highlighted the costs and risks of litigation, particularly where the decision has limited commercial effect as the contested trademark is no longer in use and where even in victory the plaintiff can be deprived of the election for an account of profits.

30 June 2017

In 2013 the Irish High Court issued a decision which made comparative advertising a game of Russian roulette. It had significant consequences for Irish and UK advertisers running campaigns across both markets and was out of step with both European decisions and the policy goals underlying comparative advertising law. However, the Court of Appeal recently overturned the decision on almost all counts.

12 May 2017

In <i>Verweij Fashion BV v Walton International Limited</i>, the registration of the trademark GIORDANO was revoked in respect of all the goods for which it was registered. The case provides helpful guidance when considering acceptable evidence of genuine trademark use, especially in the context of online sales.

20 April 2017

The past couple of years have seen the emergence of an aftermarket for the purchase of new gTLD registries, with registry operators seeking to cut their losses following a disappointing number of registrations across the new gTLD name space overall. This trend has continued in 2017 with the acquisition of ‘.irish’ by Donuts, which oversees a portfolio of approximately 200 gTLDs. However, quite why the ‘.irish’ gTLD failed to take off is unclear.

20 February 2017

In Property Renaissance Limited v Titanic Trademark Limited, Property Renaissance Limited has obtained the revocation of the word mark TITANIC QUARTER, registered in the name of Titanic Trademark Limited in Classes 36, 41 and 42, on the basis that the mark had not been put to genuine use in Ireland.

19 January 2017

An opposition to an application by Nike Innovate CV to register the mark JUMPMAN has been upheld. While the opponent was unable to prove use of its EU trademark registration for JUMP in Ireland and could show only very limited use in the European Union, the hearing officer held that this did not prevent a successful opposition to the mark.

04 November 2016

An opposition to an application to register the trademark IRISH WATER has been largely upheld following an opposition hearing. This comes after a previous hearing where objections were raised and subsequently waived by the Irish Patents Office. The recent ruling upheld the opposition for all goods and services applied for, allowing the application to proceed in only two classes.

29 September 2016

IEDR, the Irish domain name registry, has begun to release one and two-character ‘.ie’ domain names for registration. Once the sunrise period and any associated auctions have been completed, any one and two-letter ‘.ie’ domain names which have not been registered will be released for registration to any party that can satisfy the standard registration requirements during the landrush phase. IEDR expects this phase to commence on February 21 2016.

07 January 2016