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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 […]

The American social network Twitter changed its name and logo on July 24th to adopt… the letter X : Its owner, Twitter Inc., has disappeared in favor of… X Corp , a subsidiary of the investment fund X Holding Corp, the whole process having started in 2022 with “Project X” (a loan contracted by businessman Elon MUSK to acquire Twitter). The circle is complete, and the surprise is in fact logical. Thus disappears an iconic global brand, Twitter, having generated a whole terminology, such as the terms tweeting or tweet, which have passed into everyday language (hardly replicable with “X”) […]

Continuing the trend set in motion several years ago by the courts and appeal courts, the Paris Court of Appeal, in a ruling dated June 30, 2023, has taken yet another step in favor of companies on the subject of employee creations. In this case, the creations concerned are photographs. Let’s leave aside the question of the originality of photographic works and their eligibility for copyright protection, which is not always easy to demonstrate and therefore to obtain, and assume that the photographs in question are perfectly original. The case in question pitted an employee photographer against his employer, the […]

On June 22, Chanel sued an American company selling buttons from the famous French luxury house, transformed into jewelry, for trademark counterfeiting and unfair competition. This practice, known as upcycling, seems to be an ideal solution in a world where demands for sustainability and environmentally-friendly measures continue to grow. Yet trademark owners are concerned about the practice. What is upcycling? What are the risks for consumers, but also for the companies marketing these upcycled products? Upcycling is the reuse of an existing product to make a new one that is more valuable, or at least designed to be more valuable. […]

After an earlier victory, Hermès obtains a permanent injunction against the artist Mason Rothschild. Background: In 2021, American artist Mason Rothschild had created images in the form of NFTs reproducing the Birkin bags of the luxury house Hermès in fur. The artist offered the NFTs for sale on its <metabirkins.com> website. On January 14, 2022, Hermès filed an infringement action under trademark law, accusing the artist of damaging its brand image and cybersquatting. The artist invoked his freedom of artistic expression, notably denouncing animal mistreatment in the luxury goods industry through his NFTs. The judges ruled that the artist could […]

As part of the 30th anniversary of the European single market, the Lyon Métropole Saint-Etienne Roanne Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a session on June 6, 2023, dedicated to the protection and strategy of international intellectual property rights. Nathalie FAYETTE, MARK & LAW Manager, co-hosted this session alongside Hélène SALAVILLE, IP Manager at Haulotte Group, and Céline MATHEVET, Assistant to the INPI Regional Delegate. This session was an opportunity to recall some telling figures, in particular that companies owning at least one patent, design or trademark generate 20% more sales per employee than companies without intangible assets (EPO and […]

As the fine weather returns to France, the fear of forest fires remains. 2022 was marked by major fires in Europe, resulting in a sad record of 785,000 hectares burnt by the end of 2022. Heavy ecological and human consequences were to be deplored. In response to this scourge, the European Patent Office (EPO) has created a new Espacenet platform, providing worldwide access to patent information. This information comes from the EPO’s public databases, containing over 140 million documents. This information is intended to give inventors, scientists and engineers access to techniques developed in the field of forest fires. The […]

All these years you’ve been reserving Internet domain names all over the place, you’ve bought a company and taken over all its names and you renew them every year… Yes, but… why not take a look at this treasure? To renew your names, change their host, modify site content? You (or ◊ your CFO ◊ your accountant) must have the double, to access at any time the passwords and logins of the hosts of your names – gathered in a list preciously kept up to date (and secret) by ◊ your IT team ◊ webmaster ◊ assistant ◊ ad agency […]

Since March 3, 2004 and the entry into force of the organic law transferring to French Polynesia numerous competences, including economic competences, industrial property titles (patents, trademarks, designs and models) no longer automatically cover the territory of Polynesia. In order for your rights to be maintained, for titles already registered, or recognized, for new filings, it is necessary, in the first case, to request recognition from the General Directorate of Economic Affairs (DGAE) of Polynesia and, in the second case, to specifically request protection in Polynesia when filing your titles with the INPI, subject to payment of an additional fee. […]

Invented in 1851 by Isaac Merrit Singer in New York State, the famous sewing machine that revolutionized clothing manufacturing had already been the subject of a legal battle over paternity and the patents that had been filed on the invention since its birth. The company had intellectual property in its DNA, and both the technology and the brand were successfully protected. In 1855, Singer Company opened a subsidiary in Paris and became one of the first international brands. In 1901, the SINGER company clearly indicated on the instruction manual that it was a “trade mark” (photograph above). It is an […]