Posts Tagged ‘trade mark’

Yoga is an increasingly popular form of exercise involving the performing of a series of postures for health benefits. These postures named asanas originate thousands of years ago from India. But, as within religion, different schools evolve and branch out often attributed to the life’s work of a particular individual. Bikram Choudry who opened his [...]

A trade mark can be refused where it is descriptive of the goods and services it covers. This could be where the mark ‘designates the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value or geographical origin’ of the goods or service or other characteristic. For example, ‘GOOD BOOKS’ would be a descriptive trade mark in a class [...]

EasyJet has now settled a two-year long dispute with its investor and founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou over the use of the EASY’ brand name. EasyJet has finally managed to sort out a deal with Sir Stellios to end the long-running dispute.  This enables easyJet to continue using their brand name for their airline and other services [...]

Some time ago Coca Cola registered COKE as a trade mark for soft drinks both in the UK and USA. So, I was interested to hear from my daughter that the term ‘coke’ is commonly used as a general reference to fizzy drinks throughout the southern parts of America. On looking into this it seems [...]

So you may have made an online application to OHIM and you may be wondering why, after being informed by the EU registry (OHIM) that you’re trade mark has been published, you are still waiting for the certificate in the post. Don’t worry it’s not a postal strike, this time, that has delayed its arrival, [...]

When I wrote the introduction to my proposed new book in early November Why Web 2.0 Brand Protection Requires Online Brand Promotion, I hoped to publish this chapter shortly afterwards.

On the 22 September 2009 the Advocate General Poiares Maduro delivered his opinion on the question of the legality of Google Adwords in relation to EU trade mark law.  He found that Google is not infringing trade mark laws by allowing people to bid on keywords corresponding to trade marks in their Adwords service. This [...]

The UK Trade Mark Registry has launched a new trade mark application service called Right Start which goes live today. Under the Right Start service applicants will be able to test whether their trade mark will be accepted by examiners before committing to the full registration process and cost.  They will only have to pay [...]

Are you currently in the process of registering a trade mark for your brand? Everything can be ticking along smoothly until the day you receive a letter from the registry saying that your application has been opposed. What to do next? Pull out, settle or defend to the bitter end? Negotiations are certainly preferable to [...]

Japan has joined a handful of other jurisdictions which recognise the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle as trade mark. According to the New York Times (see here), Coca-Cola had been pushing for this mark since 2003. They have succeeded where many other famous brands have failed including Yakult who also tried to register the shape [...]