The new year brought some changes at WIPO and the EUIPO which are taking effect on 1 January 2018. Here is a brief summary of the most important ones for all trademark practitioners.

Source: Pixabay Read more about Changes at WIPO and the EUIPO in 2018

On 30 November 2017, the European General Court (EGC) upheld the previous decision of the Board of Appeal of the EUIPO in the joined cases T-101/15 and T-102/15, Red Bull v EUIPO. The EGC confirmed that the registered trademark consisting of two colors allowed several different combinations as the application did not display the requirements of precision and uniformity set out by Article 4 of Regulation No 207/2009. Now, the case continues to the next instance and so the highest court in the EU, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), will have the last word, whether the color combination will further benefit from legal protection.

    EU trademark No. 002534774                                  EU trademark No. 009417668 Read more about How to protect the combination of two colors? European General Court denies Red Bull trademark protection.

As of December 2017, ROMARIN, Mardid e-Alert and Madrid Realtime Status will take the back seat as Madrid Monitor becomes WIPO´s only tool for tracking international trademark registrations.

Source: http://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/

  Read more about 1 December 2017: Madrid Monitor takes its place as the one and only tool for tracking international trademarks

In its recent decision of 18 October 2017, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) held square-shaped chocolate packaging eligible for protection as three-dimensional trademarks and annulled two previous rulings of the German Federal Patent Court (BPatG). Consequently, the cases are remitted back to the German Federal Patent Court.

Source to the photo.

Background of the case Read more about Ritter Sport´s 3D trademark remains registered in Germany