LATEST TRADE MARK WORLD AND ETMR

Trademark World

Informa's ten-times-a-year magazine Trademark World for February 2006 is now out. It contains, among other features,

* "Mobilix Smashes Obelix" by Vivien Terrien and David Reingewirtz (WlimerHale LLP), an analysis of Court of First Instance Case T-336/03 on likelihood of confusion between (not so) similar marks;

* "Trademark Swamping and the Likelihood of Confusion", which the IPKat's friend Carina Badger has co-authored with her new colleague Rupert Casey at Macfarlanes. This is nothing to do with swamps - it's an analysis of the European Court of Justice ruling in Medion (noted here by the IPKat);

* "X-Tended Use of UDRP", by two more of the IPKat's friends, Miguel O'Farrell and Mencahem Kaplan (Marval, O'Farrell & Mairal, Argentina), on how domain name dispute guidelines are being employed in Argentine courts;

* "When Systems Collide" by Ana Lucia de Sousa Borda (Dannemann Siemsen Bigler & Ipanema Moreira), reviewing the past and present systems for dealing with famous marks in Brazil.

European Trade Mark Reports

With an almost unbelievable surge of speed and efficiency Sweet & Maxwell produced the March 2006 issue of the European Trade Mark Reports before February is even half way through. This issue carries eight cases, including the following which are reported in English for the first time:

* Maserati SpA v Stilma SpA and others (Bologna Court of Appeal, Italy): a curious dispute involving revocation of a co-owned trade mark on the basis that one of the co-owners had not used it;

* Ath. Skyfas-Emm. Papoulias v Greece, Emmanuel Savaides-Manolarakis (Athens Administrative Court of Appeal): whether application to register a sign containing the name of a person formerly involved in a business is an act of bad faith;

* Ath. Skyfas-Emm. Papoulias v Greece, Emmanuel Savaides-Manolarakis (Athens Administrative Court of Appeal): whether personality rights of a dead person were infringed by an application to register his name as a trade mark.

As usual, if there are any cases you'd like to see reported in the ETMR, drop the IPKat a line here and let him know. He'll see what he can do.