August 26, 2022
It is tempting for creators to extend the protection acquired through copyright by filing trademarks, thus acquiring a perpetual monopoly, renewable indefinitely. It is probably this objective that pushed the Italian company Ferrari to protect its iconic 250 GTO model by filing a European three-dimensional trademark in 2007 to prevent third parties more effectively from producing similar cars. In 2018, a German manufacturer Ares Performance is suing the trademark for failure to use it, consequently leading to its revocation. If the mythical Italian manufacturer brought to the EUIPO, the European trademark office, plenty of evidence of sales of the model […]
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August 19, 2022
Your website and email addresses related are based on… a domain name (e.g. orange.fr, sncf.com, etc) However, we are often more interested in the content (the site) than in the support (the domain name), that we sometimes forget to renew it. « Who manages this name in our company, the webmaster, the computer scientist, the e-shop manager, the digital com’ officer? » And when you want to renew this domain name – which is still possible after its expiration, during the grace and redemption periods – you realize that you don’t have the login and password to connect to the […]
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August 12, 2022
True star of our summer salads, Feta cheese was recently the subject of a decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This case opposed the European Commission, supported by Greece and Cyprus, and Denmark, which used the name “Feta“ (or “Danish Feta” and “Danish Feta cheese“) for a cheese produced on its territory, mainly from cow’s milk, which it then exported to countries outside the European Union. However, since 2002, the name “Feta” has been registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), which limits the production of this cheese to certain regions of Greece (mainland […]
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August 5, 2022
A connected generation, influenced by social networks, sensitive to digital content and brand consumption, 1 in 3 young French people declare having voluntarily accessed pirated content or having intentionally purchased a counterfeit product (clothing, electronics or hygiene) in the last 12 months. This is revealed by the third study conducted by the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) on the behaviors of young people aged 15 to 24, across the European Union, towards counterfeiting and piracy. Among the factors cited by these young counterfeit consumers are free or low cost and easy or quick access to the counterfeit product. Without […]
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July 29, 2022
[FOCUS ON OUR CLIENTS 🌟] How to refresh yourself and communicate ecologically, with La carafe qui fait parler® (“the carafe that makes people talk“): Made of glass (fully recyclable), with a stopper made of PLA, a “plastic” made from plant materials, and recyclable… in industrial compost. + Supplied with a filtration carbon (which does not crumble in the carafe), all you have to do is fill the carafe with water and let it cool in the fridge. + Design by itself for individuals, companies can choose to customize it by silk-screening their communication on the glass of the carafe. […]
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July 21, 2022
Beware of the labels on your wine bottles, they sometimes hide an unpleasant surprise. Some inhabitants of the Sarthe region in France (among others) have recently experienced this when they thought they were buying Bordeaux wines. It is well known that Bordeaux wines have a long-standing reputation for quality, dating back to the beginning of the Second Empire, and that this reputation is still very much alive and well, since consumers still turn to these wines quite easily and naturally. The temptation is therefore great for some malicious people to increase their profits by trickery. This is how the police […]
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July 8, 2022
Last September, in a case involving bubbly drinks, the European courts once again reinforced the protection afforded to products covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). But first of all, what is an Designation of Origin? This term is defined as the name of a region or a specific place that is used to designate a product that meets certain requirements, in particular its quality and characteristics that are essentially/exclusively due to a particular geographical environment and the natural and human factors inherent to it. This designation is protected against any use that would aim to profit from the […]
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July 4, 2022
Although the subject of the metaverse is not new, since Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement last October about his desire to build a metaverse that would allow people to connect and develop businesses, this “new world” has aroused the interest of many companies that see it as an additional means of visibility for their marketing and commercial operations. The first cases concerning the unauthorized use of trademarks in this virtual alternative world have quickly emerged, notably last January between Hermès and the American artist Mason Rothschild who was inspired by the Birkin bags to create and sell digital objects in the metaverse. […]
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June 23, 2022
🎬📺🎙 Nathalie FAYETTE, founder of MARK & LAW, was the guest of the French program L’Hebdo des PME – Focus PME, to discuss the missions of Industrial Property Attorneys in obtaining, protecting and defending the intellectual property rights of theirs clients in France and abroad. To watch the full interview with english subtitles, visit MARK & LAW‘s LinkedIn page by clicking here.
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June 20, 2022
When filing a trademark application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the examination service carries out a formal examination of the application to verify whether the sign filed may constitute a trademark granting a monopoly to its owner for the designated goods or services. Thus, the Office verifies whether the sign is not descriptive and whether it is distinctive, i.e. whether it can constitute a recognizable sign indicating the origin of the goods or services. Also, the trademark must not be contrary to public policy or morality. Taken in a European sense, this notion can have different apprehensions […]
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