Coca-Cola loses Community trademark case, as European court decides the bottle design does not have distinctive character February 25, 2016 The Coca-Cola Company has today lost a legal battle to trademark for its bottle design. The General Court of the European Union rejected the soft drink brand's request to register a contour bottle without fluting as a Community trademark because the design does not have any characteristics to make it stand out from other products in [...]
Kelly Hoppen interview: The interior design entrepreneur tells us why she’s gone all retro February 18, 2017 Kelly Hoppen tells me that she’s gone all retro: basketry chairs, bold fabrics, colour, leaf. Does this mean that the queen of taupe, corkscrew– curled Hoppen is turning hippie? “Homes are becoming much more loose,” she says, citing the OTT banana–leaf wallpaper, as seen in the Beverly Hills Hotel, that she says is coming back. [...]
The CMA has aired its dirty laundry after it suggests collusion between two laundry services January 20, 2017 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally concluded two NHS suppliers of cleanroom laundry services have created a market-sharing agreement, breaking competition law. The CMA found between May 2012 to February 2016, the suppliers, Micronclean Limited and Berendsen Cleanroom Services Limited, had an arrangement under which they divided up customers by geographical territory, as well as [...]
China logged a record one million patent applications last year ahead of the United States November 23, 2016 China has become the first country to file one million patent applications in a single year, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Chinese innovators filed the majority of their 2015 applications in electric engineering, including telecoms, followed by computer technology and semiconductors, and measurement instruments including medical technology. "The figures for China are [...]
Think fast! Don’t risk not protecting your ideas January 18, 2017 It's a true thrill to have a hallelujah moment, when, suddenly, the penny drops and you work out how to do something in a more efficient manner. Alternatively, it might be an idea for a new product, or a repurposing of a device for doing something new. But what do you do next? Write down notes? [...]
Burberry sues US retailer JC Penney accusing it of trademark infringement over coats, jackets and scarves allegedly featuring the “Burberry check” pattern February 9, 2016 British luxury fashion brand Burberry has filed a complaint against US retailer JC Penney, accusing it of trademark infringement for selling coats and jackets bearing exact copies of the "Burberry check" pattern. Burberry has accused the company of illegally selling quilted jackets with the pattern, as well as "scarf coats" in which scarves carrying the pattern were sold [...]
Brexit campaigners have infuriated Britain’s Olympians, and now they’re being threatened with a lawsuit August 17, 2016 The British Olympics Association has issued a legal threat to Brexit campaign group Leave.EU over use of Team GB trademarks. In a letter to the Brexit campaign founded by Ukip donor Arron Banks, a Team GB lawyer said that Leave.EU had made "extensive" use of its trademarks, including Team GB imagery, in social media posts on [...]
Chilly reception: Iceland is considering suing Iceland over its name September 23, 2016 It may have been trading since the 1970s, but it the government of Iceland has had enough of British supermarket Iceland using its name. Yep: Iceland (the country) is considering a lawsuit against Iceland (the supermarket) in an effort to force it to ditch its moniker – because it has pursued brands in Iceland (the country) who [...]
Could Anthony Joshua be the first billion dollar fighter? He must first follow the Mayweather model to crack America’s pay-per-view market May 3, 2017 It was the most exciting and momentous heavyweight world title bout since Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson did battle two decades ago. That, at least, was how many pundits depicted Anthony Joshua’s dramatic defeat of Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday night. Joshua’s triumph in front of a British post-war record crowd of 90,000 fans at Wembley [...]
KitKat’s four-finger shape cannot be a trademark says High Court in latest step in Nestle’s intellectual property battle January 20, 2016 Confectionery company Nestle suffered yet another knock today in its ongoing intellectual property battle against Cadbury after the High Court ruled that its four-finger KitKat design could not be registered as a trademark. The High Court decision follows a ruling last September from the Court of Justice of the European Union. The European court determined that, [...]