All Articles in Brands

Magazine publisher Hachette and textile maker Saprotex both used the trademark ‘Elle.’ Something had to give, and in this dispute it was Hachette’s “Elle” registrations for slippers, headgear and artificial…

With more brand owners registering ad slogans as trade marks, the European Court of Justice has looked at whether they should be more difficult to register than single word brands.…

Yellow Pages recently announced the winners of its ‘Best Business Name 2004′ competition. The finalists were highly ingenious, humorous and distinctive brands, but had any of them bothered to register…

When a certain celebrity chef named a dessert in an exclusive London restaurant menu after a famous Wall’s ice cream sub-brand, he got a rocket from ‘m’learned friends’ at Unilever.…

Were competing women’s magazine titles so confusingly similar that only one could obtain registered trade mark status?   Topic: Brands Who: Mizz (IPC) v Ms (Liberty Media for Women LLC) Where: The UK Trademarks Registry When: June…

When it chose ‘The way to fly’ for its new strapline, was BA aware that the leading German airline had been using ‘There’s no better way to fly’ for its…

Once IBM had used and registered its WEBSPHERE trademark for software, it was not going to live with WEB-SPHERE software being sold by a modest but defiant UK company. For…

Can a ‘GERRI’ registered trademark in Germany be used to stop Irish mineral water being correctly described as ‘Kerry Spring’?   Topic: Brands Who: Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co. v Putsch GmbH Where: The European…

When the European Court of Justice agreed ‘Baby Dry’ could be trade-marked for nappies, was it a false dawn for brand owners seeking to register phrases? We investigate the recent…

At the last hurdle, the application by business incentive specialists Red Letter Days to register ‘Experience gifts’ as a trade mark was way-laid by a consortium of competitors. But that…