News from Toytown

The IPKat is intrigued by a story in CNNMoney.com. Lanard, a Hong Kong company, has lost a trade mark and trade dress infringement case brought by General Motors. Lanard has been producing toy cars that resemble General Motors’ Hummer utility vehicle.

This reminds the IPKat of the ECJ’s relatively recent Adam Opel decision, where the makers of Adam Opel cars lost a case against a toy maker making replica toy Adam Opel cars which included the trade mark. The IPKat says there are two big questions in such cases: 1. will consumers really think a car maker is also making toys, or licensing its mark for toys? 2. Do we want to give makers of ‘real world’ goods a monopoly in the secondary market for toy replicas of their goods?