Recently, the EUIPO Opposition Division ruled that there is no likelihood of confusion between the verbal sign "RANGE ROVER" and a verbal sign "Trendrange". The opponent also based its arguments on national registration of a sign "Range" in various European Union countries.
Brexit will have a significant impact on trademark protection in the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The TOP 2 applicants remain Germany and China, for both EUTM and RCD applications. The United States is 3rd in filling RCD and 4th applicant for EUTM, following Italy.
Recently, the EUIPO Opposition Division ruled that there is no likelihood of confusion between the figurative sign ‘RIMOWA’ and a figurative sign ‘TAMOWA’ for the relevant public in question.
Recently, the EUIPO Opposition Division ruled that there is no likelihood of confusion between the verbal sign ‘vawa’ and a figurative sign ‘LAWA’ for the relevant public in question.
METIDA is the leading filer of European TM and Community Design
The EU Regulation 2017/1001 (EUTMR) provides brand owners with a possibility to register a shape trademark.
The world is currently entering the industrial revolution 4.0, involving the digitization of devices and processes. Devices become intelligent, able to interact with the environment and can provide information to each other and to the user.
The UK and the EU have ratified the Withdrawal Agreement. The agreement allows the UK to depart the EU on 31 January 2020 and for the transition period (1 February 2020 to 31 December 2020) to begin.
Upon hearing the word Escalator, we unsurprisingly think of an escalator, any escalator really, and not necessarily „moving stairs“ introduced by the Otis Elevator Company. Similarly, the words Yo-Yo, Thermos, Frisbee and even Heroin might not ring a bell as brands belonging to a certain company, but rather spring to mind a variety of specific goods completely independent of their creator.
A meme is a certain idea or behaviour, which spreads among people – such actions online are called viral. Among the most famous memes are the Gangnam Style single or the LOLcats picture series, which gained worldwide popularity and became part of the popular culture, also known as Internet memes.
A solar eclipse is a phenomenon that occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, thus, occulting the disk of the Sun. This is one of the most beautiful phenomena that may be watched by people from the Earth, you just have to be in the right place at the right time because this is a rare phenomenon which fully reoccurs only every 18 years. The next full solar eclipse is expected on 21 August 2017 during which the Moon’s shadow will be best seen by the USA population. The shadow band is around 106 km width; thus, in order to watch the lunar eclipse, everything should be planned in advance, i.e. arrival and the watching equipment. One of the main things is reaching the appropriate place in time because the duration of the total eclipse is only around 2 min 40 seconds if you are planning to be at the central line of the shadow and if we are talking about full obscuring of the disk of the Sun. This year this should be a real challenge because, according to the preliminary estimations, the greatest traffic jam in history is expected in such a narrow line because around 60 million people may be waiting for the eclipse.
Every day on television, over the radio, in malls and other public spaces, we hear commercial messages accompanied by music or some chords from a popular songs.
Probably nobody doubts that for buyers to make a note of a trade mark, it must be not only visually appealing, but also have a specific meaning. But it is a rather complicated task for marketing specialists and trade mark creators as in creation of a mark one should not forget that it cannot be similar, all the more so – identical, to already existing marks.
You could find many examples when the same words function as both a company name and a trademark for services or goods (e.g. Coca-Cola or McDonalds). In fact, it is not forbidden to use company’s name in the trademark. On the contrary, this will make a user remember well not only the goods or services, but also their manufacturers or providers. However, you should be aware that the co-existence of similar company names does not ensure the co-existence of similar trademarks in the market.
A trademark is defined as a sign used to distinguish the goods or services of a person from other similar types of goods or services of other persons. From that definition derives the understanding that the main function of a trademark is being an indication of source, able to identify certain products, allowing them to be distinguished from other similar ones.
According to the Law on Trademarks of the Republic of Lithuania, trademark registration under a joint ownership is not forbidden. Therefore, there are a few trademarks in Lithuania that are co-owned by more than one proprietor.
Some of the marks used in the labeling become distinctive not because of their originality but due to the way they are positioned on a particular product. These marks are indeed positional trademarks. Neither the Community’s legislation nor the national legislation define the concept of these trademarks, however there is a presence of them in practice. Hence, what sort of a mark do we have in mind and can it be registered as well as protected as a trademark?
A clear meaning of a trademark or its descriptive character is an obstacle to achieving its registration. Yet, like all other rules, this rule has an exception. Thus, one might ask, when a word that semantically refers to particular goods or services can be treated as a non-descriptive trademark. The answer to this is quite straightforward: when a consumer cannot understand the meaning of the word.
