You’ve spotted a new sales opportunity for your company. However, in Germany trade mark rights pose an obstacle and so you approach your lawyer for advice on your intended solution. Does this course of action relieve you of your legal obligations, meaning that you can avoid prosecution for trade mark infringement? It is not that simple.
You might consider placing Google Ads for your Internet shop. But a project such as this needs to be thought through carefully.
Trade mark infringement by online marketplace – Amazon. Can an online marketplace be liable for trade mark infringement because it has stocked and also shipped a seller’s infringing goods?
Your trade marks should not, if possible, share similarities with earlier signs. The Court of Justice of the European Union now has set a high benchmark in this regard. They must be strictly observed, otherwise your trade marks may be in great danger and you may inadvertently become an infringer who will be obliged to pay damages.
You will be familiar with the well-known energy drink cans from Red Bull in their typical blue/silver colour. It was Red Bull’s intention to achieve a super monopoly for this particular colour combination. Its aim was that blue/silver would be monopolised and the monopoly would cover the whole area of any shape of can and packaging of its energy drinks. Hence, Red Bull’s lawyers registered two marks for the combination of colours per se. However, the protection of colours as a brand proved not to be that simple.
On yelp’s rating portal, users are able to rate and review any company they wish to. Even if 90% of users have given your business a positive rating, yelp may still display a poor score. Rightly so?
‘Biogena Naturprodukte’, an Austrian manufacturer of dietary supplements, had the slogan ‘ZUM wohl’ for foodstuffs registered as an Austrian organic brand. However, the Court of First Instance of the European Union denied the sign protection as a Union trade mark.
You’ve bought a cheap watch on an online sales website from Turkey or China as a private consumer – but what do you do if you paid for it and you are asked to consent to the destruction of the watch without any compensation?
A particularly attractive opportunity, economically, in terms of trademark law is the registration of a trade mark for a product shape. This was precisely the basis of protection for the well-known Gardena hose syringes and their particular coloured shape. However, over the course of time Gardena had changed the colours of this trademarked product. Was that damaging?
You have trade marks in various countries of the European Union in your brand portfolio. And you would like to maintain the protection of these trade marks at low cost? A ruling of the European Union Court of Justice now provides the basis for all these options.