trademarks
Is there anything morally wrong with “Je suis Charlie”?
By AWA | Posted on January 21, 2015
In continuation of the terrible terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, social medias were flooded with the phrase “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) as a message of condolence, outrage and defiance, as well as support for the right to free expression. As expected, this social media wave resulted in a vast...
Tags: OHIM, trademarks
Revisions to Canadian Trademark Act
By AWA | Posted on November 6, 2014
Earlier this year Canada’s government proposed Canada major changes to the Canadian Trademark Act and in June the bill (C-31) received royal assent. The changes enable Canada, as one of the last (if not the last) western industrialized countries, to accede to the Madrid Protocol, Nice Agreement and the Singapore Treaty. Some of the most...
Filed under: Insights
Tags: Canada, Madrid Protocol, Nice Agreement, Singapore Treaty, trademarks
Revisions to the Korean Trademark Act
By AWA | Posted on September 19, 2014
The aim of the revisions, which were implemented in June this year, is to reinforce the position of trademark owners, which the following examples will indicate. The article handling the protection of well known trademarks has become clearer. Now it is clearly stated in the Trademark Act that applications for trademarks which are likely to...
Tags: Japan, Korea, trademarks
Protecting the FIFA brands
By Hanna Hansson | Posted on June 10, 2014
With the 2014 FIFA World Cup coming up in Brazil times are busy for organizer The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA. FIFA continuously takes action against ambush marketers, advertising or promoting around the World Cup without authorization. The preparations of the 2014 FIFA World Cup were initiated several years ago and an important part...
Filed under: Insights
Tags: FIFA, trademarks
Fatal success
By Claus Marcussen | Posted on February 14, 2014
When introducing a product, the company must have as a goal or at least a hope that the trademark related to the product will become known. Some may even pray for well known or famous. They may get exactly what they hope for and some of those may find themselves cursing the day, when it...
Filed under: Insights
Tags: trademarks
Changed conditions regarding the possibility to register “geographical” trademarks
By AWA | Posted on February 6, 2014
As you might have heard before, a fundamental requirement for registering a trademark is that the trademark is distinctive, meaning that it must have the ability of distinguishing the goods or services provided from the goods and services of others. The Swedish Trademark Act holds that a trademark might lack distinctiveness inter alia when it...
The dark side of the Internet
By AWA | Posted on July 12, 2013
On Friday the 14 June 2013 we participated in a seminar arranged by the Danish PTO in corporation with the Confederation of Danish Industry on the topic “IP infringements online”. The seminar aimed at discussing how to protect against infringement of one’s IP-rights on the Internet, and moreover a discussion of counterfeit, its extent and...
Filed under: Insights
The challenge of turning cities into successful brands
By AWA | Posted on April 16, 2012
From the legal point of view, geographical names don’t make ideal brands. Most trademark laws specifically exclude such names from protection. Everyone in a city has a justifiable interest in using the city’s name to tell the world where their products or services are produced. So it’s easy to see that building a brand based...
Tags: Branding, trademarks
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