Healthy things and Paris Bar – two new GC decisions on “weak marks”
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 15 March at Kluwer Trademark Blog On 13 March 2024, the General Court (3rd and 7th Chamber) issued two judgments dealing with weak marks in the sense the most trademark practitioners applaud, namely granting descriptive elements in trademarks only...
BASMATI – or: Back into the Past?
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 15 January 2024 at Kluwer Trademark Blog On AG Szpunar’s Opinion in Case C-801/22 P BASMATI was the first of the appeals to the CJEU in the three „Brexit cases“. The other two are APE TEES (EUIPO v Nowhere, C-337/22...
2023 GC practice in retrospect (Part 2)
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 30 December 2023 at Kluwer Trademark Blog Part 1 of this year’s retrospective provided a general overview over the GC case law from 2023 with numbers and a special focus on genuine use cases. Part 2 now focuses on...
YIPPIE! for YUPPIE – 2023 GC practice in retrospect (Part 1)
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 29 December 2023 at Kluwer Trademark Blog The year is ending and so it is time, once again, to look at what has been coming out of the General Court (GC) over the past 12 months. While the numbers...
International Law Talk Podcast: “Bad Faith in European Trademark Law”
by Verena von Bomhard We are happy to announce the new International Law Talk Podcast episode on Bad Faith in European Trademark Law. For this episode I had the honor of speaking with the leading expert in the field: Alexander von Mühlendahl, former Vice-President of the EUIPO,...
CJEU on “testarossa” – to the rescue of vintage brands
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 15 February at Kluwer Trademark Blog Vintage brands – generally well-known marks that have been phased out but live on in consumers’ memories – face the challenge that trademarks that are not used are cancelled. The CJEU judgment of...
EU: Slogan IT’S LIKE MILK BUT MADE FOR HUMANS registrable
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 8 February at Kluwer Trademark Blog On 20 January 2021, the General Court handed down its judgment in the slogan case brought by Oatly AB against the EUIPO’s refusal to register “IT’S LIKE MILK BUT MADE FOR HUMANS” (Case...
CJEU on EU trademark appeals in 2020 – year in review
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 30 December at Kluwer Trademark Blog Here‘s a look-back on the year that is about to end, with a promise not to say anything about Covid, Brexit, or Trump! This is about CJEU rulings in 2020 concerning appeals filed in trade mark...
CHRISTMAS IN EU TRADEMARKS – Happy Holidays from the Kluwer Trademark Blog Editors!
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 23 December at Kluwer Trademark Blog The Kluwer Trademark Blog wishes all readers very Happy Holidays and of a very good new year 2021 (not only in relative terms!). Christmas is upon us – only two more days. Children are...
EU: NATURAlly no confusion between NATURALIUM and NATURANOVE for cosmetics
by Verena von Bomhard – Published on 24 November at Kluwer Trademark Blog Reason prevailed: on 5 October 2020 (T-602/19), the General Court of the European Union granted the action of Eugène Perma France against the EUIPO and held that the marks NATURALIUM and NATURANOVE could not...