Trade mark: China recognises record number of well-known marks



26 January 2012


How marks won well-known status

Between May and November last year, China's government recognised 478 well-known trade marks through administrative proceedings, a rapid increase on previous years.

Obtaining well-known status in China gives brand owners broader and stronger protection, making it easier to deal with bad faith trade mark and domain registrations, even if their own mark is unregistered, and to bring dispute proceedings.

China has two ways in which trade mark owners can obtain well-known status – either in litigation at Higher or Intermediate People's Courts or through administrative procedures at the China Trade Mark Office (CTMO) or the Trademark Review and Appeal Board (TRAB), both of which are part of the State Administrative for Industry and Commerce.

US

Mega Bloks maker takes on Lego in the US. Canadian company Mega Brands sued Lego in California in an effort to invalidate what it described as the Danish company's 1999 US functional trade mark. The move follows a decision by US Customs to restrict imports of some of Mega Brands' own toy brick products. Now the company wants the court to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

EU

CTM applications rise again. Applications for Community trade marks have continued to surge despite the economic downturn in Europe. OHIM estimates that it will have received 106,000 applications for CTMs in 2011, up from just over 98,000 the year before. It says that the number of Madrid Protocol applications has also soared. They represented 16% of the total, an 8% increase on 2010.

US

Professors back YSL over red sole trade mark. Eleven law professors have denounced the way Louboutin and INTA have applied the doctrine of aesthetic functionality in Louboutin's legal battle with Yves Saint Laurent over red-soled shoes. YSL says that Louboutin's trade mark is aesthetically functional. Louboutin and INTA have claimed that the doctrine of aesthetic functionality has been strictly limited by courts.

China

Baidu removed from US IP watch list. The US Trade representative has praised Chinese search engine Baidu for striking a deal with rights owners during its latest review of so-called "notorious markets" that are rife with counterfeiting and piracy. The Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets has removed Baidu from the list, as well as Hong Kong's Ladies Market and Russia's Savelovskiy Market.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has bought the rights to the Budweiser trade marks belonging to Czech brewer Budejovicky Mestansky Pivovar. The company has been in a decades-long dispute with another Czech brewer, Budejovicky Budvar, over the Budweiser name.

The US Copyright Office has stated that yoga poses cannot be copyrighted, as part of a dispute between practitioners of hot yoga over trade mark and copyright.

The UK government has postponed a planned public consultation on introducing plain packaging for tobacco products. The Secretary of State for Health said he had commissioned an independent academic review of the existing evidence related to packaging.

Litigation between mobile phone review website PhoneDog and former employer Noah Kravitz over who owns the rights to Kravitz's Phonedog_Noah Twitter account followers will clarify the law and underscores the need for companies to implement social media policies.

Companies that fill packaging on behalf of others cannot infringe a third party's trade mark, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in a dispute between Red Bull and Frisdranken Industrie Winters, which fills drinks cans on behalf of Smart Drinks.


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