In our earlier blog we discussed the opposition between Maradona's former lawyer and a United Arab Emirates company. This company had filed a cartoonish image of Maradona in the European Union with his Italian nickname Dieguito above it. The opposition was based on the word mark MARADONA. It was interesting to hear how the European trademark office (EUIPO) would handle this opposition: is there use of MARADONA as a trademark, and if so, is only a conceptual similarity sufficient to assume confusion?

Studio Ghibli is often called the Japanese version of Disney. With exceptional craftsmanship, often still hand-drawn, animated films like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away have become globally recognized and widely acclaimed. Spirited Away even won an Oscar for best animation film. Just like Disney, Studio Ghibli has its own shops and merchandising, also in countries outside Japan.

We often think that creativity is a purely human affair, but we are forgetting a very interesting group: animals. Animals also create. Take, for example, the pig nicknamed "Pigcasso," who shows a keen interest in painting, or research demonstrating that dolphins can invent games. Often, animal creativity and inventiveness arise from the need to solve a particular problem. This can include accessing food that is difficult to reach or, like the male bowerbird, crafting intricate structures to attract a mate

Some people wear Crocs as a fashion statement in the city, while others wear them strictly in the privacy of their garden and hide them behind the door the minute they go back inside. The Crocs shoes below aren’t everyone’s thing. However, we are talking about Crocs here − aren’t we? Sufang Yan, a Slovakian company, registered the shoes shown above as a European design in 2022.

Butchers and meat suppliers already had plenty on their minds as a result of people eating less meat, but the producers of vegetarian meat alternatives are now also using meat-related names for their products. Surely this is misleading? Trademark law states that distinctive product names filed as trademarks may not be misleading. For example, the Benelux trademark authority rejected an application for CHICKEN TONIGHT, as it considered its use for non-chicken-related meat to be misleading.

How to enter a new market without substantial advertising budgets? Welcome to the world of guerrilla marketing. One way is to challenge market leaders and that is exactly what Tony Chocolonely did in her “Sweet Solution” campaign. Although legally risky, having a major brand owner react attracts a lot of media attention. Tony Chocolonely is a well-known chocolate brand in the Netherlands with colorful chocolate bars in various flavors. Their strong brand promise which is making the chocolate industry exploitation free, is part of their success.

Kool & The Gang had its biggest successes in the seventies and eighties (remember: Ladies Night!). Only one founding member of Kool & the Gang, Robert “Kool”, is still alive. In 2021, however, new members of Kool & the Gang made a studio album named “Perfect Union”.

It appears that in China people wearing frog costumes (so called “Frog sellers” or “Frog Influencers”) led to a flood of viral videos.

Crompouce (®?) - A Pink Sensation

All wrapped up: trademark protection for distinctive packaging

Many types of trademark elements can be protected nowadays, including names, logos, shapes, colours, sounds, moving images, short films and position trademarks.

Marlboro lookalike

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