BEANS; BRUSSELS; BELLURE

Return of the Mac

Forbes reports that McDonald’s has won a dispute in Singapore. The High Court ruled that Food Empire’s application to register MacCoffee was too similar to McDonald’s McCafe mark. Future Enterprises has appealed.

The IPKat notes that it seems like in Singapore, the Mc prefix has allowed McDonald’s to control the Mac prefix too – not good news for Scotsmen.


INTA European Office

MarketWire reports that the International Trademark Association is opening a European representative office in Brussels on 16 October.

The IPKat is curious to see what the impact of the new office will be.


A bit more on Bellure

Following on from Jeremy's post on L'Oreal v Belllure, the standout element of Lewison J's ruling is his consideration of the different degrees of similarity that is required between marks under ss.10(2) (confusion) and 10(3) ('dilution') respectively. This has got to be right. While the ECJ has told us to use the same conceptual tools for judging whether marks are similar under both sections, the type of harm that is being looked for is different in both cases, and so it makes sense that you need a slightly different route to get there.