AWA
Beer lovers sue for trademark dilution
By AWA | Posted on April 26, 2013
Trademarks are, among other things, a guarantee for a certain level of quality. If the quality slips, the consumers may go for a different, competing product. But sometimes consumers seem to stick to their favorites. An unusual lawsuit has been filed in the US, where consumers have filed a $5 million class action against Anheuser-Busch. The...
Tags: Anheuser-Busch
Is use in only one single member state in EU enough for a Community Trademark?
By AWA | Posted on March 12, 2013
If you have a registered EU trademark (“Community trademark”) today, which was registered for more than five years ago, what are the consequences in practice if you only use your trademark in one country within the EU? The Court of Justice came with a ruling in case C-149/11 ONEL/OMEL on 19 December 2012, in which...
Filed under: Insights
Tags: Community trademark, OMEL
IP Law – How hard can it be?
By AWA | Posted on October 5, 2012
My trainee colleagues and I are now in the final stage of our first 5-week theory period. So many new impressions, new colleagues and new information have opened up for us, revealing an exciting new world of IP law. When I first applied for the Trainee program, I had very little knowledge of the many...
Filed under: Insights
Tags: awapatent, IP, trainee programme
Design just as important as technical issues in Apple vs. Samsung verdict
By AWA | Posted on August 31, 2012
The dispute between Apple and Samsung on smartphones and tablets has received much public attention. Recently, a landmark verdict was reached when a California based court decided in Apple’s favour. Samsung now has to pay at least one billion US dollars to Apple, who also has sought a sales ban in the USA on a...
Filed under: Insights
Tags: design protection, Infringement, Patent, Software, USA
Counterfeit Goods in the EU – Troubling News but No Surprise
By AWA | Posted on August 14, 2012
On July 24, the European Commission published a press release concerning its report on seizure of counterfeit goods during 2011 in the EU (see the full report). It turns out that seizure of suspected counterfeit goods increased some 15 % compared to 2010. Top categories are medicines (24 %), packaging material (21 %) and cigarettes...
Tags: china, counterfeits, EU, Infringement, IP rights, Piracy, Trademark
A new dawn for protection of designs?
By AWA | Posted on July 6, 2012
It is no secret that the differences in national European law concerning the protection of designs, has been driving many Danish rights holders crazy for years on end. It has been difficult to come to terms with the fact that while many of our prominent Danish designs – designs of which we as a nation are...
ZLATAN, ROONEY and EURO 2012 – Protected as Trademarks
By AWA | Posted on June 20, 2012
EURO 2012 is indeed on-going and now it is time for the exiting quarter-finals. Huge investments have been made for the tournament and companies are using various branding strategies to become connected to EURO 2012. However, in these times it is more important than ever to discuss with your marketing departments how you are going...
Tags: brands, Community trademark, Football, trademark registrations
The challenge of turning cities into successful brands
By AWA | Posted on April 16, 2012
From the legal point of view, geographical names don’t make ideal brands. Most trademark laws specifically exclude such names from protection. Everyone in a city has a justifiable interest in using the city’s name to tell the world where their products or services are produced. So it’s easy to see that building a brand based...
Tags: Branding, trademarks
Which business methods are patentable in the US?
By AWA | Posted on February 9, 2012
When the Bilski decision was handed down by the US Supreme Court in 2010, it was taken as a clear indication that business methods would now be more difficult to patent in the US. After all, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the subject-matter at stake, a method for hedging risk, was abstract,...
Tags: business methods, Patent, US
EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal repeats obligation to raise objections in time
By AWA | Posted on February 1, 2012
Last week, the European Patent Office released two new decisions by the Enlarged Board of Appeal on petitions for review, R 2/11 and R 10/11. Both the underlying petitions were based on what the petitioners regarded as fundamental procedural defects before respective Boards of Appeal 3.2.04 and 3.2.03. Both cases are appeals from opposition proceedings. In R...
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