Nathalie FAYETTE

A recent case highlights the problem of ownership of rights on packaging designed by advertising agencies (Paris Court of Appeal, April 14, 2023, no. 21-09.779). Following the end of their business relationship, a pharmaceutical company registered as a three-dimensional trademark the drug packaging it had ordered from a communications agency some ten years earlier. (European Union trademark filed on September 1st, 2005, No. 0855857) The communications agency then brought an infringement action, arguing that its copyright on the creation, i.e. the drug’s packaging, had been violated. However, the agency’s claim was rejected, as the originality of the packaging was ruled […]

The European Parliament has just adopted a regulation aimed at strengthening the protection of craft and industrial products bearing geographical indications within the European Union. Geographical indications are labels that designate products whose characteristics are closely linked to a geographical location where at least one stage of their production takes place. Geographical indications can be found on a wide range of products, from wines, spirits and foodstuffs to craft and industrial products. To illustrate the latter, let’s cite examples such as “Limoges Porcelain“, “Perpignan Garnet” and “Aubusson Rug” in France, or “Murano Glass” in Italy. Until now, craft and industrial […]

Spotlight on products that outshine their brands! A spa, a whirlpool… from the JACUZZI trademark (look at that little symbol ® at the end of the trademark, reminding us that it’s not a generic word… as the company’s recent press campaign also reminds us). Before becoming a benchmark in bubble wellness, it was the compassion and inventiveness of Candido JACUZZI in the 1940s that gave birth to a therapeutic hydrotherapy pump to relieve his grandson Kenneth of the incessant pain associated with his rheumatoid arthritis. The young man was thus able to maintain his mobility for many years. The company’s […]

Infringement of the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) “Côtes du Rhône” and “Côtes du Rhône Villages“: Cancellation of the word and semi-figurative trademarks NEWRHONE evocative of the PDO. In 2018, SAS NEWRHONE MILLESIMES obtained registration of the NEWRHONE and trademarks with the INPI to identify “wines benefiting from the Protected Designations of Origin “Côtes du Rhône” and “Côtes du Rhône Villages” including Côtes du Rhône Crus, and other Protected Designations of Origin of the Rhône Valley” in class 33. The INAO (Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité) and the Syndicat général des vignerons réunis des côtes du Rhône […]