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 risk of not doing any kind of trade mark search before launching a new business was clear in a recent IPEC case in which His Honour Judge Hacon found that the China Tang trade mark was infringed. The case was brought by the owner of the China Tang restaurant at the Dorchester Hotel in London against a Chinese takeaway called China Tang in Barrow-in-Furness (GNAT and Company Ltd & Anor v West Lake East Ltd & Anor [2022] EWHC 319 (IPEC)). Scope of trade mark The claim was b

The Court of Appeal recently found that a company which had acquired the BEVERLY HILLS POLO CLUB trade marks was bound by an arbitration clause in an agreement signed by its predecessor. More details on the first instance decision are here. The case is Lifestyle Equities CV & Anor v Hornby Street (MCR) Ltd & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 51. What happened? Lifestyle Equities acquired the UK and EU trade marks for BEVERLY HILLS POLO CLUB in 2009. It subsequently sought to bring an actio

In short, yes: the UK courts can grant a pan-EU injunction in proceedings that were pending on 31 December 2020, the day the UK left the EU. That was the conclusion of Sir Julian Flaux, Chancellor of the High Court, in his judgment in a dispute between Easygroup and Beauty Perfectionists (& others) over the latter’s use of the name easyCOSMETICS. Under the EUTM Regulation, EU member states can designate national courts as EU trade mark courts. These courts have jurisdiction t

A legal action for unjustified threats is a serious risk that trade mark owners run when making allegations of infringement, including by issuing takedown notices via online platforms such as marketplaces. As a recent decision showed, the risk of unjustified threats should not be taken lightly. The decision came in a dispute over knitting needles. The case dates back to November 2015, when Indian company KnitPro issued takedown notices to Amazon UK regarding wooden knitting n