Region: Europe

An Italian court has found that a purse clasp in the form of the Greek letter <em>omega</em> – Ω – amounted to valid use of a trademark registration. This is a departure from previous case law, which either refused to acknowledge the validity of marks represented by a single letter or restricted protection to identical forms by competitors.

14 November 2007

UK patent applicants can look forward to big reductions in the cost of registering patents when the London Agreement comes into force. While the agreement will reduce translation costs for all applicants, UK businesses will benefit doubly as English has so far been chosen as the official language by all member states with a choice.

14 November 2007

New research on innovation policy in Europe shows that Italy is ranked 12th among EU member states – not the best result the country could have hoped for. However, strong creative industries, together with the likely ratification of the European Patent Convention 2000, could help to enhance Italy’s competitiveness.

07 November 2007

The French Senate has adopted a draft law that gives rights holders new and significantly improved legal weapons against counterfeiters. Initially intended to implement the EU IP Rights Enforcement Directive, the law standardises and improves the procedures available to holders of trademarks, designs and models, copyrights and patents.

24 October 2007

From October 1 2007 the UK Intellectual Property Office will examine UK trademarks only on the basis of absolute grounds, with a view to realising greater conformity with European Community trademark procedures. But what will this mean in practice?

05 September 2007

The petitioner, Riseria Monferrato S.p.A., had been using its unregistered design mark comprising the representation of an Indian woman seated on a carpet while preparing bread on a background of columns of blue colour on a further background of red colour. This design mark was being used in a substantially identical form by a competitor, Riseria Roncaglia S.r.l., and such use was pursued notwithstanding warning letters dating back to 2005.

01 January 2007

A Bologna judge has rejected the arguments of the respondent based on exhaustion of rights. The judge held that this was not a case of admissible “parallel importation” since the goods manufactured in Holland and imported into Italy by the respondent were marketed without the consent of the trademark owner.

01 October 2006

The jurisdiction concerning IP litigation has been assigned in 2003 to a limited number of specialised IP chambers of Courts spread throughout the Italian territory. The Court of Cassation has now decided the debated question whether such specialised sections did also have jurisdiction over controversies relating to employees’ inventions or whether Court Chambers dealing with labour conflicts were in charge.

01 September 2006