Understanding Trademark Law Through the Lens of Halloween: A Spooky Guide

Halloween, with its pumpkins, costumes, and haunted houses, is one of the most exciting and creative times of the year. But behind the spooky masks and candy bowls lies a complex world of Intellectual Property Law, especially trademarks, which many businesses need to navigate carefully during the season.

LexDellmeier, the creative trademark, design, copyright and licensing law experts from Munich, Germany, and its team members would like to extend to all clients, colleagues and IP friends from around the world a happy, healthy and successful New Year 2024!

Protecting slogans as trademarks is becoming more difficult. The European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO’s) Board of Appeal (BoA) has dealt with the question of  registrability of slogans as trademarks in no less than three decisions recently. 

All these small Gimmicks – Trademark Infringement?

Vacation time. Travelling time. Hamburg. Miniatur Wunderland - the world´s largest model railway. An amazing place to spend a whole day, discovering all the small gimmicks that the Wunderland crew has built and is still continuing to expand. Looking at all the trademarks used, one might wonder if this could be considered trademark infringement. Earlier this year, the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) had to decide about a similar question and we would like to share the decision.

(Source:  BGH, I ZR 86/22, Decision of 12 January 2023)

Be honest - Have you ever bought counterfeit goods or illegally consumed digital content?

On 12 June 2023, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published an interesting article on counterfeits and illegal electronic content. As an IP boutique specializing in non-technical intellectual property rights, we come across counterfeits all the time and we found the study very interesting and would like to share some of its main findings with you.

(Source: Shutterstock; 502909426)

Alexandra Dellmeier of LexDellmeier - Intellectual Property Law Firm Intellectual Property Office talks about her career in IP and running her own firm. In April 2023, Managing IP launched Women Founders list, a publication dedicated to highlighting the intellectual property firms that were founded or co-founded by women. The full interview in Managing IP can be found at: https://lnkd.in/eAkzqJkW and is also copied into the LexDellmeier Blog below.

The EU set its priorities for the next four years of combating severe and organized crime in May 2021. Within the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (“EMPACT”), a strategy plan has been developed and will be put into action between 2022 and 2025.

Rims and wheels have been under discussion regarding design protection for many years.

The significance of comprehending the scope of protection given to marks with a reputation in EU law was brought up again in a recent case. The trademark at issue in this case is unquestionably one of the most well-known brands in the world: GOOGLE.