Trademarks

In the World of Chocolate, Cadbury owns part of the Rainbow

Cadbury won a surprising victory on October 1, 2012 by getting the colour purple as a registered trade-mark under the Trade-mark system of the European Union.

ICANN 45: gTLD System Put to the Test

The issues surrounding new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) will be the focus of ICANN 45; the last meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) scheduled for 2012. The meeting will be held in Toronto from October 13 to October 19.

Mon Dieu: Chanel Accused of Counterfeiting

France is known for its fashion.  Perhaps more importantly within the fashion world, France is known as being one of the last remaining champions of the petites mains: highly skilled tailors and seamstresses that are the “behind the scenes” technicians to Europe’s most notorious haute couture fashion houses.  In a surprising David v. Goliath decision, […]

Louboutin v. YSL Forced to Agree to Disagree

The fashion law community has been carefully watching Christian Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent battle over red-soled shoes. At first, the twitter-verse heralded this decision as a definitive win for Christian Louboutin. However, on closer examination this appears to be more of a win-win (or a lose-lose) situation. Ultimately, co-existence is the name of the […]

Trademarks: Louboutin’s Sole Rights Affirmed

In a recent victory for French design house Christian Louboutin, a New York appeals court has ruled that Louboutin can trademark its shoes’ iconic red sole since it is a defining feature of an authentic Louboutin product.

No Fruit for You: EU Trademark Board finds Fruit of the Loom’s use of the mark “fruit” to be invalid

Although not as exciting as a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, the latest trademark case involving undergarment company Fruit of the Loom has grabbed the trademark world’s attention.

Colourful Rubik’s Cube description leaves public ‘confused’ and ‘scratching their heads’: EU Court of Justice

“Six surfaces being geometrically arranged in three pairs of parallel surfaces, with each pair being arranged perpendicularly to the other two pairs characterised by: (i) any two adjacent surfaces having different colours and (ii) each such surface having a grid structure formed by black borders dividing the surface into nine equal segments”.

The Tale of the Uni-Brower: Trade-marking Sports Catchphrases

Anthony Davis, formerly NCAA college basketball’s breakout star, and presently the New Orleans Hornets’ #1 draft pick, might soon be following in the footsteps of fellow NBA player Jeremy Lin, although those steps won’t necessarily be on the court as his team’s top-scorer.

Imperial Tobacco v Philip Morris: Product Packaging Alone Creates Consumer Confusion

On June 29, the Federal Court of Appeal allowed in part Imperial Tobacco’s lawsuit against Philip Morris, holding that the appearance of Imperial Tobacco’s packaging was in and of itself a trademark. The full decision may be read here.

United States Court of Appeals Finds Balance between Artistic Expression and Trademark Protection

The United States Court of Appeals has handed down a ruling that tries to clarify the overlap of First Amendment protected artistic expression and unregistered and registered trade-marks.