dilution

Unfair competition in EU

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Trade mark dilution or well known trade marks

The European Court of Justice has handed down an important ruling clarifying aspects of trade mark dilution in the EU: Intel v CPM:

IPkat’s comments here.

Links to some other commentary here and the “Rapid Response” seminar power point slides via here.

Art.4(4) of the Trade Marks Directive provides:

4.      Any Member State may furthermore provide that a trade mark shall not be registered or, if registered, shall be liable to be declared invalid where, and to the extent that:

(a)      the trade mark is identical with, or similar to, an earlier national trade mark within the meaning of paragraph 2 and is to be, or has been, registered for goods or services which are not similar to those for which the earlier trade mark is registered, where the earlier trade mark has a reputation in the Member State concerned and where the use of the later trade mark without due cause would take unfair advantage of, or be detrimental to, the distinctive character or the repute of the earlier trade mark;

which is similar to our very own s 120(3), so there might be some scope for understanding how s 120(3) could work?

Meanwhile, IP Dragon draws our attention to issues relating to protecting well-known trade marks in China here.

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