Virtual Goods in Focus – EU General Court’s First Ruling

Post date: 
January 21, 2025
Categories: 
EUIPO, The Court of Justice of the European Union, Trademark Law, European General Court, Decisions, Distinctiveness, Intellectual Property
Tags: 
#virtualgoods, #gc, #watches, #glashuette

Virtual Goods in Focus – EU General Court’s First Ruling

The General Court (GC) has issued its first-ever ruling on the distinctiveness of a trademark applied to virtual goods. The decision T11163/23 dated 11 December 2024 – “Glashütte ORIGINAL”  concerned the application for the following sign:

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ECTA, DAY THREE: On Different Perspectives and Progress

Post date: 
June 27, 2016
Categories: 
Events, Intellectual Property
Tags: 
ECTA, ECTA Annual Meeting, Intellectual Property, Event

On the final morning of the ECTA Annual Meeting, the first four sessions were all about presenting different points of view on the same topic. One session was on Prior Rights Agreements, introducing the topic from an industry worker’s perspective and a practitioner’s. The parallel session was on Copyrights. The first speaker was Dr. Florian Drücke from German Federation of the Music Industry. He started by admitting that the industry reacted very late to the emerge of the Internet. They did not take it seriously until early 2000, but, after realizing it is a tool that is here to stay, expressly started finding ways to protect copyright online. Their current goal is the development of a sustainable digital market and establishing better offer of legally downloadable goods. However, battling pirate content is proving to be very hard.

ECTA, DAY TWO: on Changes and BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals)

Post date: 
June 27, 2016
Categories: 
Events, Intellectual Property
Tags: 
ECTA, ECTA Annual Meeting, Intellectual Property, Event

The day started with welcome speeches given by ECTA’s President, Mr. Mueller, Dubrovnik’s Deputy Mayor Mr. Raguž, Mrs. Kauterovac, Director General of Croatian IPO and the organizing Committee, led by Mr. Vukmir.

ECTA, DAY ONE: on particularities and achieving harmonization

Post date: 
June 24, 2016
Categories: 
Events, Intellectual Property
Tags: 
ECTA, ECTA Annual Meeting, Intellectual Property, Event

As mentioned in the previous post, LexDellmeier is attending the ECTA Annual Meeting. ECTA, short for European Communities Trademark Association is an association promoting the knowledge and professionalism of members and owners alike in the fields of trade marks, designs, copyrights and other Intellectual Property rights, within the European Union. Among many other activities, they organize the Annual Meeting, this time taking place in the beautiful Dubrovnik, a historic gem in the south of the Croatian coast. We have prepared a short overview of each day of the Meeting.

Countdown to ECTA

Post date: 
June 21, 2016
Categories: 
Events, Intellectual Property
Tags: 
ECTA, Event, Intellectual Property

 

Although the INTA Annual Meeting has just finished, European IP professionals have another opportunity to meet, mingle and discuss the latest novelties in the field of IP. European Communities Trade Mark Association (ECTA) is organizing their annual meeting from 22 June to 25 June, 2016. The venue is the historic town of Dubrovnik, Croatia. With its colorful naval and merchant past, the organizers considered it to be symbolic to what is currently happening with the new trademark protection system, and named this year´s conference “Rogue Waves and Crosswinds: Trade Marks in Motion”. Although the program predicts a plethora of topics, they will all be emphasizing the new EU Legislative Package Trademark Reform. Although you will get a daily summary of the event, this is a short introduction to the planned discussions, workshops and events.

The EGC decides on the link between conceptual similarity and consumers’ confusion

Post date: 
June 08, 2016
Categories: 
European General Court, Likelihood of confusion
Tags: 
Likelihood of confusion, European Union Trademark, Conceptual similarity, General Court of the European Union

The recent case the General Court of the European Union (the EGC) had to resolve was a great example of the correlation of conceptual similarity and public confusion. What conceptual similarity entails and how (not) to defend it, this case presents a systematic lesson for everyone.

 

        

 

Background of the case

WhatsApp - Terms of Service

Post date: 
June 01, 2016
Categories: 
Decisions
Tags: 
Decision, Terms of Service

Welcome to Whatsapp.com! Step one, choose a preferred language for a more personalized experience. That is, unless you are looking for the Terms of Service (ToS). Although being one of the most important elements of this messenger service, they are provided in English only. The Berlin Court on 8 April 2016 rendered the ToS invalid, requesting WhatsApp to adjust to their German-speaking users.

 

Background of the case

INTA Annual Trademark Meeting 2016

Post date: 
May 31, 2016
Categories: 
Events, Intellectual Property
Tags: 
INTA, Event

Each year, top intellectual property professionals gather from all around the world to attend an yearly event organized by the International Trademark Association (INTA). This year, the 138th INTA Annual Meeting was held in Orlando, Florida, from 21 May to 25 May 2016. It was a proud moment for INTA, as the number of registrants surpassed the 10 000 milestone, making this the largest meeting in INTA´s history. Of course, LexDellmeier IP Law Firm attended the conference and continues to support INTA´s efforts by serving as a committee member on the Public Media Relations Committee. The Committee´s aim is to educate persons who do not deal with intellectual property on a daily basis.

Another year older…

Post date: 
May 11, 2016
Tags: 
Anniversary, Corporate INTL Awards

And what a year it was! On May 1, 2016 LexDellmeier IP Law firm turned seven. Founded in 2009, each year has brought exciting new challenges, cases, clients etc. leading to growth and success and a 2016 award as the Boutique IP Law Firm of the Year in Germany.

 

 

This year we decided to mark our anniversary with a new-and-improved LexDellmeier webpage at www.lexdellmeier.com. Our aim is to give you a full overview of intellectual property, whether you are an IP enthusiast or a newbie just getting interested in the subject. In particular, we have included our blog, which can now be found at http://www.lexdellmeier.com/de/blog.

 

The new Data Protection Regulation and Directive published

Post date: 
May 09, 2016
Categories: 
Intellectual Property Law
Tags: 
Intellectual Property Law, Data Protection

With the booming of online commerce, entering your personal information and sending it to the cloud has become inevitable. Along grew the concern of both citizens and businesses. The lack of control over given data worried many and the fragmentation of laws and complicated national systems of obtaining protection did not help. Therefore, it is no wonder that 90% of the surveyed EU citizens opted for an improved and unified EU data protection legislation.

On 4 April 2016 the European Parliament adopted the new Data Protection Regulation and Directive. The Directive entered into force on 5 May 2016, with a three-year transposition deadline, and the Regulation will enter into force on 24 May 2016, with the application date set for 25 May 2018.

A new report on the economic impact of counterfeit trade published by OECD and EUIPO

Post date: 
May 03, 2016
Tags: 
Counterfeiting, EUIPO, Intellectual Property, OECD

With joined efforts, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) conducted a study on counterfeiting and the impact it had on economy from 2011 to 2013. Their results were published on 18 April 2016 under the name“Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods: Mapping the Economic Impact”. Although presuming the results would not be satisfactory, they have exceeded all expectations, with 2.5% of world trade including counterfeits and up to 5% of imports in the EU. This might not seem significant at first glance, but 2.5% of the world trade amounts to 461 billion USD, which is equal to the GDP of Austria. 5% of EU trade is 116 billion USD, almost the GDP of Hungary. Seeing these numbers in black and white should start the alarm in policymakers´ heads and show how much we are in need of a change in the legislation.