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A trade mark dispute has led US group-buying website Groupon to launch in Australia under the name Stardeals

Trade mark users in Europe “will benefit hugely” from OHIM’s Cooperation Fund, according to the chair of its management board

Find out which firms are highly ranked, and which are up and down in the key EU markets as well as central and southern Europe

This part of the most comprehensive annual study of leading IP firms looks at trade mark practice in Africa and the Middle East

Social media can seem like a nightmare for the spread of trade mark infringement. But Simon Crompton argues they can help protect and enforce your brand

David Gooder, chief trade mark counsel at Jack Daniel's Properties, gives his top five tips on interacting with social media

A recent decision by the British Columbia Court of Appeal has clarified what some had viewed as permission by the trial division to use third-party marks in keyword advertising

A majority of 23 of the EU's 27 member states are now moving forward to implement a unitary EU patent by way of an enhanced cooperation. The four member states who have decided not to participate in the enhanced cooperation are Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and Cyprus. Spain and Italy have in particular opposed the EU patent adopting a language regime that excludes their respective languages.

Plans to develop a unitary patent system for the European Union have been thwarted by linguistic and legal difficulties. The main objectives of the unitary system are reduction of costs for obtaining and enforcing patents and lifting of legal uncertainties, by creating a unitary patent and a European Patents Court under a Unified Patent Litigation System (UPLS). Currently, European patents have to be validated in each country and are enforced by national law. The high translation costs for validating patents as well as the expensive and often unpredictable litigation outcome in the different member states – sometimes reaching conflicting verdicts in identical cases – have often been cited as major weak points of the system.

On the basis of its Red Bull – and Bull – marks for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and Class 3 goods like perfumes, the firm behind Red Bull has requested cancellation of the word mark Pitbull and the device showing in the centre the head of a pit-bull terrier with the word Pitbull above it and below the words "get the power". These marks were registered for identical goods, so there was no controversy about this point.