Organisation: Procter & Gamble

In a case involving a trademark application by The Coca-Cola Company, the adjudicator has considered the proper test for determining the registrability of a 3D mark under Israeli law. In particular, she addressed the issue posed by the application at issue - namely, the registrability of a 2D depiction of a 3D bottle.

07 November 2012

The Israeli Trademark Office has refused to register representations of The Procter & Gamble Company's Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner bottles on the grounds that the 2D front views of the bottles lacked inherent distinctiveness. P&G had argued that the applications in fact represented 3D shapes, but the IP adjudicator held that an application for a 2D mark cannot be changed into an application for a 3D mark.

11 September 2012

The last few weeks have seen Olympic sponsors come under media attack for, among other things, restricting the sale of chips, selling alleged ‘sweatshop-manufactured’ products and sidelining the great British beer. But what impact does negative coverage have among consumers? Two media monitoring services suggest the pros of sponsorship clearly outweigh the cons.

26 July 2012

In <i>Samsung Electronics UK v Apple Inc</i>, the Patents Court has decided that three tablet computers marketed by Samsung did not infringe Apple’s registered Community design No 000181607-0001. Interestingly, the judge reached this conclusion despite the fact that, when he first saw the Samsung products, he was struck by how similar they look to the Apple design. He changed his view after having educated himself into the position of the informed user.

19 July 2012

In <i>Dyson Ltd v Vax Ltd</i>, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales has upheld a decision of the High Court in which the latter had found that Vax Ltd’s Mach Zen vacuum cleaner did not produce the same overall impression on the informed user as Dyson Ltd’s protected DC02 design. The decision does little to dispel the view of the English courts as unhelpful to rights holders.

17 November 2011

Last week almost 90 business associations and companies joined forces with the Association of National Advertisers to form the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight and oppose the rollout of the gTLD programme. While some commentators have argued that the call has come too late, the ANA’s general counsel has told <i>WTR</i> that the fight will continue beyond the application window if necessary.

16 November 2011