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The Sound of Silence: Brexit and Community Trademarks
April 24, 2016
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On June 23rd the UK will vote to stay in the EU or leave. Bookmakers make a stay vote favourite, but the odds are narrowing on Brexit. If the vote is for Brexit, as the UK tide flows out of the EU we might see who’s swimming denuded of trademark rights and…as in life, if y
Continue Reading →A Cool, Refreshing Blog-Post About Beer (and Trademarks)
July 14, 2013
Fans of cartoon, The Simpsons, may sit back and enjoy the taste of this cool, refreshing blog post about one of the more common trademark questions that trademark agents are asked. Why can a logo (called a figurative trademark) prevent us from using the same or similar words in a diff
Continue Reading →Trademark Dealings: Don’t Look Back In Anger
April 14, 2013
Today’s blog looks back at some costly trademark and intellectual property slip-ups. Many might describe these slips as the type that small business often make. Not all are strictly trademark related, but trademarks play a central role. Innocent’s Halo Trademark Cancelled. In 19
Continue Reading →Trademark Clearinghouse Examined…
March 28, 2013
Domain names can infringe registered and unregistered trademark rights. The time, expense and loss of business focus is a drain on the resources of many businesses dealing with trademark infringement by domain name holders. The launch of potentially almost 2,000 new genericTLDs (gTLDs
Continue Reading →Trademark Clearinghouse Launched to Protect Trademark Owners for new gTLD Roll-Out
March 28, 2013
ICANN, which basically controls non-country level internet addresses, launched its Trademark Clearinghouse service on Tuesday in an attempt to meet the intellectual property protection challenges posed by the impending roll out of potentially over 1,800 new generic Top Level Domains (
Continue Reading →Iron Out Your Descriptive Trademark
March 20, 2013
This is a blog-post that those of you with a Russell Hobbs ‘Steam Glide’ iron can check out. And yes I own one and use it too. But first, read on and pick up some tips on ironing out your descriptive trademark… There are certain absolute grounds for refusal to register a tradema
Continue Reading →Unacceptable Goods and Services Descriptions in Trademark Applications
March 08, 2013
The Patents Office is working with other National Offices, OHIM and user organisations to reach agreement on which Nice Classification class heading general indications are acceptable and which are not in trademark applications. As a result of this work the Patents Office recently pub
Continue Reading →Irish Trademark Applications After IP Translator
March 08, 2013
The Irish Patents Office has issued a note confirming its practice in relation to the use of ‘class headings’ as designations of goods and services in applications to register a trademark. This follows the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the IP T
Continue Reading →Unusual Trademarks, Scents and Smells
December 01, 2012
This is my second post about unconventional and unusual trademarks, like sound, smells, tastes and textures, not just visual signs. Last time I blogged about sound marks. Here I write about scents, smells or olfactory trademarks. The Sense of Smell: Is there commercial sense for apply
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