This post provides a review of a recent case, T-398/16 -Starbucks Corp v EUIPO and Hasmik Nersesyan.Football Players and Trade Marks
The 2018 FIFA Football World Cup is well underway in Russia with the teams having played through most of the group games at the time of writing. England fans’ spirits remain unhealthily optimistic with the Three Lions having recorded their highest ever victory in a World Cup match at the weekend with a 6:1 win over Panama. Other major teams have looked unconvincing it must be said, with Argentina scraping through to the knock-out stages a couple of nights ago and defending champions Germany failing to progress out of the group stages following three abysmal performances. Who knows maybe it is England’s year after all…
Although football is the main focus, it’s hard not to notice the role that branding and sponsorships play at the World Cup. Many businesses want their brand to be associated with (and profit from) the world’s most widely viewed sporting event. Following the recent news that England striker Jesse Lingard has registered his goal celebration as a trade mark, we thought we’d have a little look into other trade marks that footballers have registered to protect their personal brands, enabling them to reap rewards both on and off the pitch. (more…)
Starbucks Success
This post provides a review of a recent case, T-398/16 -Starbucks Corp v EUIPO and Hasmik Nersesyan.
Key points
• The threshold for similarity is low
It’s a funny old game – World Cup & IP
pixabay/gellinger
Once every 4 years the FIFA Football World Cup (or soccer for our American readers) comes around and incites an unnatural sense of optimism in England supporters around the world that this could be our year. While this is always an event that somewhat brings the people of the country together, some may say the repetitive upsurge of optimism before each World Cup is misplaced. On the eve of the World Cup which marks the 13th tournament and 52 years since the first (and only) World Cup victory of the three lions, it is worth noting that England’s national team have won just 6 matches in the knockout stages of any major international tournament since the 1966 World Cup Victory.
Optimism or pessimism aside, there is always the possibility of a World Cup upset, football is a simple game where anything can happen, as Sepp Herberger (Coach of the 1954 World Cup winning West Germany team) famously once said; “The ball is round, and the game lasts 90 minutes”. (more…)
CIPA Seminar: Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court for Attorneys
The CIPA seminar series relating to the unitary patent and Unified Patent Court resumed last week with the session “Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court for Attorneys”. This session, which was presented by Julia Gwilt, took a look at the ways in which the unitary patent system may impact the way that European Patent Attorneys will need to work.
The session provided a quick overview of the unitary patent system and then took a closer look at the procedure before the EPO (when requesting unitary effect) and the procedure before the Unified Patent Court (when requesting or withdrawing an opt-out).
We won’t cover the basics of the unitary patent system again here and readers wanting a quick recap of the system are invited to check out IPcopy’s report on the first CIPA seminar on this subject which can be found here. (more…)
Trade Mark Protection in China
Keltie was pleased to host Tian-ying Zhao and Wang Yanping from IntellecPro. They gave the Keltie Trade Mark team a very interesting seminar on trade mark protection in China. I have summarised 5 important points to bear in mind when filing trade marks in China. (more…)
IPcopy 