trademark law Archives

The featured image shows the Mercedez hood ornament. The post is about a recent Court ruling by the ECJ. TO read more click here.

EU Court rules against Mercedes-Benz: No Trade mark Infringement for Online Advertisements.

This post is about an interesting case relating to the use of the trade mark "MERCEDES-BENZ" by Együd Garage Gépjárműjavító és Értékesítő Kft. (‘Együd Garage’) in advertisements on the internet. The garage stated that it is an authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer. This case is filed by Daimler AG ('Daimler'), an automobile manufacturer which is the proprietor of the international trade mark "MERCEDES-BENZ" which is also protected in Hungary. The defendant is Együd Garage, a Hungarian company specializing in the retail sale of Daimler…

March 7, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1115Views 0Like

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McDonald’s wins and is “lovin’ it”

McDonald's recently won favour with the EU Office in a case of opposition which it filed against Supermac’s trademark application in the European Union, to prevent Supermac from registering its brandname as a trade mark in EU. Supermac had planned a major expansion in the UK, the EU and Australia. Supermac is an Irish origin fast food company started by Pat McDonagh, in 1978. The Mighty Mac double burger and the Chicken Snack Box has been popularised since then with revenues…

February 2, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1628Views 0Like

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The featured image is of the trademark symbols- tm, r . The post is abouT change in the name of Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) to European Union Intellectual Property Office. please click here to read more.

The First Amendment strikes again

The Slants, an Asian-American rock band, founded by Simon Tam, had applied for the registration of their band name as a trademark. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) however, refused to grant THE SLANTS trademark registration under §2(a), which bars registration for marks “[c]onsist[ing] of or compris[ing] … matter which may disparage … persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.” It stated that the mark was denied registration for being…

January 5, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 793Views 0Like

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The featured image is of lord Ram his wife Sita, the devotee Hanuman and Rama's three brothers (Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna). The post is about a trademark case involving a religious trademark. To read more click here.

Don’t take the God’s name in vain

“You cannot take ‘advantage’ of me”, Sita must’ve said to Ravan. And not surprisingly at all, the Honourable Supreme Court of India feels strongly for the sentiment. As was seen on the 27th of October, 2015 when the division bench comprising of J.Gogoi and J.Agrawal observed that using images of Gods and Goddesses as a part of a logo/label would be “taking advantage of the Gods and Goddesses” which wouldn’t be permitted. The SC also ruled that names of holy…

December 11, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1087Views 0Like

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The Indian Express case

In October this year, the Bombay High Court passed its decision in the case between The Indian Express Limited and Chandran Prakash Shivhare, the publisher and distributor of a journal called "Indian Express" filed before the Bombay High Court in the year 2010, to seek an injunction against the Defendant, and to restrain them from using the title ‘Indian Express’. The crux of this case was whether a registered trademark could be infringed by the use of the identical mark which had…

November 24, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1056Views 0Like

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Trademark Infringement in the Automobile Industry Part III: Bentley Trademark suit

In furtherance of the previous post about the BMW Emblem case , the current post is regarding the luxury automobile manufacturer, Bentley Motors Inc, which prevailed in a trademark infringement lawsuit against the makers and installers of kits that transform more modest vehicles into virtual clones of the Bentley. The crux of the issue here is, whether producing and installing external body kits to inexpensive vehicles to seem similar to high-end luxury automobiles constitutes trademark infringement and dilution of the…

November 3, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1294Views 0Like

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Featured image of peps Spine guard mattress is used, as the post is about a trademark issue related to this. To read the post click here.

Peps Industries Vs. Shakti Mattresses & Gears

The Delhi High Court has passed an ex-parte interim injunction against Shakti Mattresses & Gears Pvt. Ltd. on 29th May 2015, to restrain from dealing in the goods and services, under the mark ‘SPINE GUARD’, which is a registered trademark of the plaintiff, Peps Industries Pvt. Ltd. To briefly state the facts, the Plaintiff, Peps Industries Pvt. Ltd., is engaged in the business of manufacturing, marketing and sale of sleep comfort products such as mattresses, pillows, cushions, sofas, beds and…

June 16, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 744Views 1Like

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Phonetic Justice for Trademark

This article was contributed by Swastika Chakravarti. How important are phonetics in trademarks, you ask? The General Court of the European Union has an answer for you. In deciding a matter between Pay TV giant, Sky and Microsoft (owners of Skype), the Court relied on the similarity of signs in terms of concept and phonetics to deny Microsoft a trademark for Skype in Europe. Holding that the pronunciation of ‘y’ in Skype is no shorter than in Sky, the Court…

May 8, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1383Views 1Like

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The image reads Trademark. The post is about the Trademark Agent Exam which will be conducted soo. Click on the image to read the full post.

Understanding the Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents – Part 1

This post was first published on 10th October, 2014. The Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents is a rule used in the Trademark Law which states that a foreign word and its equivalent English translation may be deemed confusingly similar. Under this doctrine, marks consisting of or including foreign words or terms from common, modern languages are translated into English to determine the extent to which it is generic, descriptive, the likelihood of confusion it may cause among other similar issues. The Trademark Manual of…

October 10, 2014 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1174Views 1Like

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Well Knownness of a Trademark – Part II – Popularity among Substantial Segment of Public

As discussed in our previous post, for determining the well knownness of a trademark, the claimant of the well knownness is required to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the mark enjoys high reputation among a substantial segment of consumers, with respect to the goods and/or services to which said mark is applied. In order to conceptualize the principle behind the well knownness of a trademark, it is important to understand the legal interpretations of the terms ‘substantial segment of consumers’…