Huawei escaped a ban for selling its phones in Germany

The Chinese tech company Huawei will continue to sell its smartphones in Germany after reaching an agreement with the patent poll MPEG LA.

The dispute at hand concerns video coding technology used in computers and phones, for which there are patents included in the MPEG LA portfolio.

In 2018, the Court in Düsseldorf ruled in favor of MPEG LA ordering all  Huawei’s smartphones which are sold in Germany to be recalled and destroyed.

To prevent such results, Huawei signed a license agreement with MPEG LA that will allow the company to use the above-mentioned patents as well as to continue their selling in Germany.

Source: WIPR.

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Lacoste lost a crocodile case in Nederland

The Hague District Court ruled in a lawsuit between Lacoste and Hema, which concerns a children’s underwear with a crocodile motif.

According to Lacoste, Hema infringed the rights over their registered trademarks, which above all is well-known amongst the consumers.

The Court, however, disagreed with Lacoste stating that there was no infringement in the case at hand because the use of a repetitive crocodile pattern was perceived as a decoration, not as a source of origin. The practice of using animal depictions for children’s clothing is widespread.

Lacoste claimed that confusion could be created due to the fact that their trademarks have had a reputation on the market for many years. In addition, a survey was been provided, in which many respondents stated that they connect crocodile depictions with the Lacoste’s trademark.

The Court dismissed this evidence because the questions in the survey were leading, making respondents think about trademarks. On top of that, the relevant public wasn’t defined correctly.

According to Lacoste, some of the clothes contained only one depiction of crocodile which made even easier for the consumers to make a connection with their trademark.

The Court disagreed for this too, concluding that this cloth had been selling in a package with others and only in the Hema’s stores so the relevant consumers would not be confused neither be able to connect it with the Lacoste’s trademarks.

Source: AKD NV – Bram Woltering, Lexology.

Trademark exhaustion and cosmetics in Milan

The Court of Milan ruled in a case regarding trademark infringement and the principle of trademark exhaustion.

The Italian cosmetic producer Landoll S.r.L accused a retailer of infringement of its registered trademarks NASHI and NASHI ARGAN because the retailer wasn’t authorized to sell the products bearing these marks.

The defending argument of the retailer was that it had been selling these products lawfully because of the concept of trademark exhaustion in the EU according to which:

1. An EU trade mark shall not entitle the proprietor to prohibit its use in relation to goods which have been put on the market in the European Economic Area under that trade mark by the proprietor or with his consent.
2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply where there exist legitimate reasons for the proprietor to oppose further commercialization of the goods, especially where the condition of the goods is changed or impaired after they have been put on the market.

The Court of Milan, however, disagreed with that argument applying the Coty judgment of the European Court, stating that there was a trademark infringement because in the case at hand Landoll S.r.L had developed a legitimate selective distribution system of authorised dealers in order to ensure maximum consumer satisfaction as a result of the products use. In that way, the cosmetic company tried to safeguard its trademarks value among the consumers.

Source:K&L Gates – Arthur Artinian, Jennifer P.M. Marsh, Francesco Carloni and Gabriela R. Da Costa, Lexology.

Image: kinkate , Pexels.

Brief IP news

1.  Applications for Division of International Registrations available. For more information here.

2. Can the name of a country and a year be a trademark? For more information here.

3. Reminder: Strategic Plan 2025 stakeholder consultation. For more information here.

A dispute over geographical indications can threaten the trade deal between the EU and Australia

As it is well-known the EU is negotiating with Australia for a $100 billion trade deal similar to those signed with Canada and Japan.

In that regard, the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan expressed his concerns about the deal after the last meeting between the parties in Canberra.

As in all other deals, the EU expects all of its geographical indications to cover the other party’s territory after the deal, which aim to protect the European producers of traditional products.

The problem in the case of Australia, however, is that many local manufacturers have been using European geographical indications, such as Prosecco and Feta for free for decades. The EU insists that to be discontinued. On the other side, the Australian government tries to support its producers in an attempt to avoid eventual economic disturbance for them.

In most of the cases, such disputes end with a grace period after which the relevant producers have to seize the use of the protected geographical indications or in some cases at least to add the name of the country in front for a distinction.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.

Marry Me – not in the EU

The General Court of the European Union has recently ruled on a case where the Swiss tech company Marry Me Group tried to register two European trademarks – a work mark MARRY ME and the following figurative sign:

The trademarks were been applied for the following Nice classes:

9 Communication software; Mobile software; Application software for social networking services via the Internet.

38 Providing access to forums (chat rooms) for social networks; Electronic transmission of messages; Providing online chat rooms for the transmission of messages, comments and multimedia content among users; Online conferencing of greeting cards; Providing access to forums [chat rooms] for public networks.

45 Matching services provided through social networking; Meeting, dating and personal presentation services via the Internet; Personal computer related services.

EUIPO refused to register both of them based on absolute grounds – lack of distinctiveness and descriptiveness. According to the Office MARRY ME can be directly perceived by consumers as a dating service. In regard to the figurative mark, the presence of graphical elements in combination with the word part is not enough to overcome the descriptiveness because of the shape of hearts that plays the opposite effect, it emphasizes, even more, the meaning of the phrase.

Marry Me Group argued that they already had received registration for their trademarks in Germany. However, that was to no avail. EUIPO stressed that when it comes to European trademarks their meaning has to be assessed on every language in the EU. From that perspective, all English speaking consumers will get immediately the meaning of the phrase as it is stated. So the signs will be descriptive.

The Court upheld this decision which is a good example of the practice where undistinctive signs are registered in combination with graphics or other words. Although this is possible, it has to be taken into account the fact that those graphics and words have to be distinctive enough and definitely not to support the meaning of the descriptive parts of the relevant trademark.

Source: WIPR.

Free use of copyrighted works for advertisement in Denmark – an important Court’s decision

Emil Jurcenoks and Peter Nørgaard reported for one interesting and at the same time an important decision of the Danish Supreme Court.

The case concerns advertising photographs made by the Danish supermarket chain Coop which contained among other tableware by the Danish designer Kasper Heie Würtz for which use, however, there wasn’t a concent by the designer nor any remunerations.

A lawsuit was been initiated. According to Coop there was no copyright infringement because the Danish legal practice allows minor use of copyrighted works in case that the works are not famous and the use is only as a background and minimal.

Würtz won the case before the first instance Maritime and Commercial High Court.

The Supreme Court upheld this decision. According to the court, Coop failed to prove that there is a legal practice which allows such copyright exceptions for applied art for advertising purposes. What’s more, the Court considers the use at hand as not minor due to the fact that all photographs contain the aforementioned tableware. An exception is possible but in very narrow cases where relevant works are not distinctive enough and are not essential elements in the reproductions.

The full article is accessible here.

Source: IPKat.