Region: Sweden

In <i>Société des Produits Nestlé SA v Master Foods AB</i>, the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court has refused Nestlé's application for leave to appeal the decision of the Court of Patent Appeals in which Nestlé's trademark registration for the get-up of its SMARTIES sweets packaging was rejected.

10 December 2003

The Supreme Court has announced that it will hear an appeal filed by the Swedish arm of electronics giant Sony against a decision from the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal held that Sony Sweden had infringed the rights of the owner of the I-LINK mark because its website linked to other sites that featured the term 'i-link'.

28 November 2003

The Swedish Court of Patent Appeals has allowed the registration of the letter combination 'LC' as a trademark, thus updating and clarifying the Swedish practice concerning the registrability of very short letter combinations.

09 October 2003

The Swedish Supreme Court has ruled in <i>Mast-Jägermeister Aktiengesellschaft v V & S Vin & Sprit Aktiebolag</i> that the defendant's use of the mark JÄGARBRÄNNVIN for schnapps infringed the plaintiff's rights in the marks JÄGER and JÄGERMEISTER for liquor that is consumed as shots, thereby reversing two lower court decisions.

19 June 2003

The Swedish Trademarks Council, a panel of experts that was established last year to investigate cases of product imitation, has found that four large convenience store chains have violated Swedish legal principles and canons of business ethics by selling privately labelled products that imitate the shape, size, labelling and/or colouring of branded products.

30 April 2003

In <i>Institut National des Appellations d'Origine v Handelshuset OPEX AB</i>, the Court of Patent Appeals has ordered the cancellation of the defendant's mark CHAMPAGNE for spectacle frames. The court held that the term 'champagne' is not only protected as a geographical indication but also as a reputed collective trademark.

07 April 2003

The Internet Infrastructure Foundation has issued new registration rules for the '.se' domain space. The rules, which will be implemented next month, are more relaxed than the previous regime and will allow any natural or legal person to register almost any name.

25 March 2003

The Swedish Market Court has issued a decision against Arla Foods AB for its use of the term 'champagne' in relation to yoghurt. The court found that the advertising was an obvious case of intentional misappropriation of goodwill, and was misleading in respect of the product's content and flavour.

14 January 2003

Swedish Match and Cubatabaco have signed a settlement agreement, ending several proceedings across Europe for infringement of the designation of origin 'Havana'. Swedish Match agreed to stop using the name 'Wilde Havana' for the cigars its subsidiaries have been manufacturing and distributing since the 1970s.

13 December 2002