A judge in the High Court has upheld a UK IPO opposition ruling regarding Unilever’s application to register the trade mark WONDER MUM for goods including soaps, perfumery and hair care products in class 3. The opposition is discussed here. The application was opposed by DC Comics on the basis of its earlier EU trade mark for WONDER WOMAN, registered in classes 3, 9, 16 and 41, and its goodwill in the WONDER WOMAN character generally. In the first instance decision in June 20

The estate of JRR Tolkien has won a UDRP action against the registrant of the domain name jrrtoken.com, which has been used for a website relating to cryptocurrency. Tolkien, the author of books including The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy, died in 1973. The Tolkien Estate owns trade marks for JRR Tolkien, including in the UK and US. It brought the UDRP complaint against Matthew Jensen, who registered the domain name on 26 February 2021. The website at the disputed

In what may be a record for an IP case in the UK, the trial in Lutec (UK) Ltd & Ors v Cascade Holdings Ltd & Anor [2021] EWHC 1907 (Pat) lasted just over an hour. In his judgment published on 9 July 2021, Deputy High Court Judge David Stone found that four registered designs were infringed by two outdoor light fittings, known as the Helios Up Or Down light (Helios U/D) and the Helios Up And Down light (Helios U&D). The judge attributed the rapid resolution to “thorough prepar

This Court of Appeal decision is a helpful reminder that a lack of evidence of actual confusion is not necessarily fatal to a finding of trade mark infringement. The two IP specialist judges and one of the few female judges in the Court of Appeal upheld a finding of likelihood of indirect confusion between EU and UK trade marks for EAGLE RARE (registered for, respectively "bourbon whiskey" and "whiskey" and other goods in class 33) and a bourbon whiskey sold under the name AM

An application to register a trade mark can constitute passing off, according to a recent judgment by Deputy High Court Judge John Kimbell QC in a case concerning the Litecoin cryptocurrency. The litigation was brought by Litecoin Foundation Limited (Litecoin Foundation) against three defendants: Inshallah Limited, Nasjet Limited and John Pepin. Litecoin Foundation claimed it has a substantial reputation and goodwill in the UK in Litecoin, which it had promoted and developed.