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.

On 3 December 2020, the independent student initiative at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), START Munich e.V., is organizing a webinar on the topic: “Legal Insight – Intellectual Property in a Nutshell” for #startups. The focus of the webinar is set on how to protect trademarks, designs, copyrights and (software) patents. The speakers of this event are #Alexandra Dellmeier (Attorney at Law and Certified IP Attorney) at #LexDellmeier and Dr. Jochen Reich (German and European Patent Attorney, Ph.D.M.Sc. in Computer Science) from the IP firm Reich-ip.

 

If trademarks are part of your daily work, you have surely come across the issue before:  You have a registered trademark, but it is used differently in commerce – either because the trademark used has been modernized compared to its registered form, or because parts of the registered mark have been omitted when used or because parts have been added in comparison to the registered mark. In all these cases, the question arises whether or not use of the trademark in a form differing from the one registered can still be deemed use of the registered mark. Otherwise, your registered trademark might be at risk and action needs to be taken to ensure that no actual loss will occur. Guidance is now provided by the trademark offices of the European Union member states and the EUIPO.

(examples of similar, but different marks)

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in cooperation with Cornell University and INSEAD, released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 with its main conclusions regarding the impact of the COVID-19 crises on the innovation developments and which countries are the leaders in innovation 2020.

I. How COVID-19 affects innovation

October 2020 is almost over and everything is different this year. Here in Munich, we have not been able to celebrate the WIESN as the “original” OKTOBERFEST is often called. It was cancelled due to the pandemic. Usually, visitors from all over the world come to our beautiful city each year during these two weeks in fall when OKTOBERFEST it taking place. However, while the public is cursing the pandemic and has been mourning, at least the City of Munich was able to enjoy a considerable legal and trademark victory.

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For the last two months, Oliwia Puto – our Legal Trainee was working on her Overall Project, which was the creation of a chatbot “BenBot” for LexDellmeier. “BenBot” is a mobile app that aims to facilitate and accelerate the process of filing applications for the registration of an EU trademarks. In order to achieve this purpose, it collects from the users all information that the attorneys at LexDellmeier need to prepare such applications. We are delighted to announce that this project will officially go live around December 2020/January 2021. This means that in just a few months you will be able to download the app from AppStore and use it to receive information on matters related to trademarks, IP law etc., and to send information needed to apply for an EU trademark registration – 24/7! What makes us particularly excited about this project is that (as far as we know) LexDellmeier will be the first law firm in Germany to implement a Legal Tech solution of this kind. Read the blog post to find out more!

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On Wednesday, 1 July 2020, LexDellmeier held its two webinars no. 6 and 7 on the topic “Design Law Basics” (German: Designrecht 1 x 1). During the approx. 75 minutes presentation, Andrea Breier and Alexandra Dellmeier outlined what a design is from the legal point of view, explained how to acquire a design right and talked about the importance of design protection. As usual, we recorded the webinar and published it on YouTube – you will find the link in the post below!

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On 7 August 2020, all attorneys, paralegals and trainees at LexDellmeier met at the picturesque Lake Starnberg in Bernried (approx. 25 km from Munich) to hold its annual Strategy and Team-Day Meeting. Although the main aim of the meet-up was to discuss three key topics:  digitalisation, client needs during Covid-19 and Brexit, it was also a great opportunity for the team members to finally gather all together (of course, with social distancing measures in place!) after a very long break caused by COVID-19. Some of the LexDellmeier team had been working non-stop from home for the past four to five months. Working web-based or via Teams or Zoom from the home offices has had some advantages (like no commuting time etc.). However, it is always really good to have in-person meetings at least once in a while. Even though home office is still done by some employees, others prefer to come to the office and meet up with colleagues in person – to discuss legal issues or to have a personal chat or just a coffee together. We have hygiene and social-distancing policies in place at the firm and we believe to have found a good balance between working from home and being on site at the office headquarter. Like all are colleagues and clients around the world – work is continuing – just the circumstances are somewhat different during these challenging times.

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Wie hoch ist der durchschnittliche Wert einer Marke am Unternehmenswert? Ist der Wert von Branche zu Branche unterschiedlich hoch? Und was bedeutet „brand valuation“ und „brand evaluation“ eigentlich genau? Diesen und anderen wichtigen Fragen rund um das Thema Markenrecht und -wert widmete sich Alexandra Dellmeier bei der Web-Seminarreihe des Bundesverband mittelständische Wirtschaft Unternehmerverband Deutschlands e.V. (BVMW Bayern).

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On Wednesday, 17 June 2020, LexDellmeier held its fifth webinar on the topic “Brand Value and Financial Instruments”. During a 30 minutes discussion, Alexandra and Oliwia outlined the concepts of “brand valuation” and “brand evaluation” and explained how the economic value of a brand is assessed. If you missed the webinar, don’t worry – we recorded it and published on YouTube! As usual, you’ll find the link in the post below.

Wanna cool down? Enjoy some “Plombir”! It is summer. The sun is shining, it is hot and you are looking for something to cool down a bit. How about a “Plombir”? You do not know what “Plombir” is? It is a kind of ice-cream that is very popular in the Russian Federation. But instead of only being used to COOL people down, it has been the subject of HEATED debates at the EUIPO and in Germany over the past about 10 years regarding the question whether or not the term “Plombir” was descriptive for ice-cream. Here is what the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided on 18 June 2020.

(Source: Shutterstock.com, No. 1280544706)