On 20 June 2018, the General Court of the European Union (GC) ruled that the distinctiveness of the trade mark ‚POLO’ by Ralph Lauren’s eponymous fashion brand is indeed so famous that it requires broader legal protection against similar trademarks. What is significant in this decision is the fact that, even though a mark may not be exceptionally distinctive, its recognition by the public combined with its acquired reputation and its influence on the market is enough to grant ‘POLO’ enhanced protection against the registration of similar marks.

                                              POLO                                                 vs.                                     HPC POLO

                            (EU Trademark No. 4049334)                                                    (EU Trademark No.  013531462)

                                         (Word mark)                                                                                   (Word mark) Read more about RALPH LAUREN’S ‚POLO‘ TRADEMARK DESERVES ENHANCED LEGAL PROTECTION, GENERAL COURT SAYS

On 15 March 2018, the General Court of the European Union (GC) annulled the prior decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the EUIPO (Case R 165/2016-4), deeming that there indeed was a likelihood of confusion between the figurative marks “Winged bull“ and “Griffin“. The parties involved were the internationally known hospitality company Marriott Worldwide Corp. , which held the rights for the figurative mark representing a griffin and Johann Graf, a famous Austrian billionaire and owner of the international gambling company Novomatic, who had obtained a EUTM registration for the use of the figurative mark of a winged bull. The interesting part in this case is the difficulty in objectively assessing whether the trademarks were visually and conceptually similar, since the organs of the EUIPO deemed the signs very different from each other while paying attention to details, whereas the GC sifted the focus on the overall meaning of the signs in the sense that they were both representing imaginary beings.

                                               vs               

                                            Marriott                                                                                            Johann Graf

                           EU Trademark No. 8458259                                                       EU Trademark No. 010511723                                     

                                     (Figurative mark)                                                                             (Figurative mark)                     Read more about Marriott wins case against Austrian billionaire: General Court rules visual and conceptual similarity between figurative marks

On 4 May, all fans of the commercially most successful movie series are celebrating the international Star Wars Day. In the fan community, this tradition has been established over 10 years ago. The 4^th of May was not chosen randomly, but, because of the very similar pronunciation to the Star Wars most popular Jedi saying: “May the force be with you”.

Source: EU 3D shape trademark No. 005896601 Read more about Happy Star Wars Day and may the 4th be with you!

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Organization (EUIPO) have recently published their statistics regarding information on applications and cases filed during the year 2017. What is impressive is the amount of registrations at both Organizations, which in 2017 reached an unprecedented number.

                                                                                            Source: Shutterstock  Read more about Intellectual Property: 2017 IN STATISTICS