All Articles in Brands

Not using a registered trade mark for 5 years exposes it to revocation. Proving use was not just a matter of asserting it, the court said in this milk drink…

Hackney Council couldn’t quite believe it when it saw its 40 years old logo on a range of Nike sportswear. Nike said it was celebrating Hackney Marshes as all that…

The rule is that branding doing no more than making a generic promotional claim cannot become a registered trade mark. So what about ‘You wont believe your eyes’? Distinctive enough…

After months of bickering and attempted negotiation, France Telecom’s Orange has finally lost patience and issued proceedings against easyGroup and its use of orange for the competing easyMobile brand. But…

US lawyers for Vogue publisher Conde Nast have written in high dudgeon to the Mail on Sunday’s ‘You’ magazine complaining of ‘virtually indistinguishable’ typefaces and ‘confusion on the news stand’.…

The naughty nineties saw multiple disputes over ‘lookalike’ packaging, with supermarket ‘own labels’ lining up against big brand owners. In the UK at least, the law was found wanting, but…

No less than six recent Euro/US cases focused on when a registered trade mark is infringed by a ‘similar’ brand. In the ring were T-Online/E! Online, Starbucks/Charbucks, Cerfix/Perfix, BEAM/BEMA, VOV…

Three trade mark verdicts in recent months concentrate the mind on the need to use brands on all of the products for which they are registered or risk losing the…

Two companies fought a pitched battle over the brand METRIX ELECTRONICS. One was trying to get it registered as a trade mark. The other had used the unregistered mark METRIX…

Confectionery maker Ferrero has recently come a cropper in a two- pronged challenge to FIFA’s claimed monopoly rights over soccer World Cup branding. So what’s wrong with ‘World Cup Germany’…

The Business recently announced that iPod maker Apple is to make it clear to iPod accessory makers that they can only use iPod branding if they pay royalties. But what’s…