Nathalie FAYETTE
September 30, 2022
From December 2020 to September 2022, after months of investigation, French Customs initiated and coordinated one of the largest operations ever conducted at the European level against counterfeiting sold on the Internet, in coordination with Europol, DNRED (National Direction of Intelligence and Customs Investigations) and the German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech and British law enforcement agencies. Result: This operation allowed the seizure or blocking, in these 7 countries, of 16.7 million counterfeit products, mainly toys, and mostly coming from China. Hundreds of thousands of online buyers have been – most of the time – deceived by the advertisements of these […]
September 23, 2022
After 22 years of legal proceedings to get his name back, Manolo Blahnik, the UK-based luxury shoe designer, will (finally) be able to market his products in China. The case dates back to 1999, when a Chinese businessman registered the trademark “Manolo & Blahnik” in China before the luxury designer. However, Chinese legislation applies the “first to file” system (first-come, first-served) to trademarks. This system allows “pirates” (companies or individuals) to obtain exploitation rights on a name, without any real intention to exercise them. These “pirate” registrations can then be resold, usually at high prices, to foreign companies wishing to […]
September 19, 2022
Use your trademark to avoid the risk of revocation and keep proof of it A Trademark allows to obtain a monopoly of exploitation on a sign in connection with the goods or services referred to in the application for registration. However, it is a living legal title, linked to commercial development over time and whose force and enforceability weaken if it is not or no longer used for all or part of the protected goods and services. In France and in most European countries, the absolute protection ends 5 years after the registration of the trademark. The legal news […]
September 13, 2022
The recent death of Queen Elizabeth II has certainly not escaped you. The British are mourning their Queen, but the whole world is joining in their sadness, as the Queen of England was so iconic and famous far beyond her borders. During the 70 years of her reign, we could see Elizabeth II’s face on stamps, coins, banknotes, on television, but also on Andy Warhol’s paintings, the cover of the Sex Pistols’ single God Save the Queen in 1977, the posters of the series THE CROWN broadcast on Netflix, countless T-shirts and even champagne capsules! If the countless goodies with […]