Find out about two recent changes to the protection of well known trade marks in the UK

Mr Justice Mellor has declined to grant an interim injunction in a passing off case concerning vodka bottles. The case was brought by Au Vodka Limited, whose Au Vodka brand was launched in 2015, against NE10 Vodka Limited, which launched its vodka brand in August this year. The rival bottles are pictured side-by-side below. Shortly after NE10's product launched, on 2 September 2022, Au Vodka’s solicitors sent a letter before action and issued a claim for passing off. Followin

The protection of terms which indicate the geographical origin of goods, whether as Geographical Indications (GIs), or otherwise is an increasingly important, but also increasingly complicated, area of IP law. There have been several interesting developments in recent months including the following. Scotch Whisky certification mark In June 2022, the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) announced that it had registered Scotch Whisky as a certification trade mark at the USPTO. It sa

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

We recently reported on the Litecoin case where an application to register a trade mark was found to constitute passing off (see blog post here). Whilst cryptocurrency and celestial beings may not, at first glance, have a lot in common, a recent IPEC decision over the mark ARCHANGEL ALCHEMY raised some similar issues. Both cases highlight the importance of clearing a new trade mark application before filing or using the trade mark. This was a dispute between two spiritual and