Written by Briffa

Swatch What Happened to Apple’s IWATCH Trade Mark Application

Swatch’s opposition to Apple’s IWATCH trade mark application recently reached the High Court, where John Baldwin QC had to decide whether the marks were similar and if there was a…

Have a break, have a naked KitKat!

Nestlé, have not established acquired distinctiveness for their four finger bar of chocolate. On 17 May 2017, the Court of Appeal dismissed Nestlé’s appeal to register a four finger KitKat as…

News Flash – Use of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) is on the increase

The Law Society Gazette reported earlier today that use of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) is on the increase. In terms of number of cases filed, 2016 saw an increase…

Verisign’s Latest Domain Name Industry Brief

Verisign, the company responsible for operating key Internet infrastructure (e.g. ‘.com’), has published its latest brief on the state of the domain name industry. The volume of domain names registered…

The Premier League Obtains New Blocking Order against Streaming Servers

In July 2013, the Premier League successfully obtained an injunction from the High Court requiring certain internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to a website (FirstRow Sports) which had…

Dog’s Dinner for ‘DINE IN WITH ZUMA’

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, the Court that specialises in IP matters in England and Wales, recently found that the use of ‘ZUMA’ and ‘DINE IN WITH ZUMA’ infringed the…

Google Play Threatens to Remove Apps without Privacy Policies

Google Play have been sending out notices to app developers without privacy policies in their store, threatening to switch off the lights if you do not put an adequate privacy…

Account of profits made CRISTAL clear

Last month, the UK High Court handed down judgment in relation to an account of profits calculation in the long-running saga between Champagne Louis Roderer and J Garcia Carrion following…

It’s National Pie Week and Play-Doh have applied to trade mark their smell!

The toy manufacturers Hasbro are seeking a US trade mark for the smell of Play-Doh, their specimen is none other than a container of Play-Doh. At present, within the UK and…

Search Engines Team Up with Film and Music Associations in the Fight against Piracy

Once upon a time you could only listen to the music on the CDs that you brought along for your car trip or on the radio and you could only…

The Threats They Are A-Changin’ – the murky ground of dispute resolution

As legal advisors, we often have to tread the murky ground of dispute resolution.  Frequently, clients contact us, having fired the first shot against a potential infringer and have unwittingly…

Victory for Farfetch in Trade Mark Squatting Battle

In China, it is notoriously difficult to deal with trade mark squatting whereby someone registers another business’ trade marks in bad faith. Once the squatter owns the trade mark registration, they…

Facebook, the power of the non-disclosure (confidentiality) agreement

A US court has held, that Facebook obtained virtual reality software from ZeniMax, after they acquired Oculus back in 2014. It was held, that Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus breached…

Trade Marks and Alcoholic Drinks: Is there a Likelihood of Confusion between ‘Pitu’ and ‘Litu’?

Have you ever been out and considered the wine list, ordered a drink in a bar or restaurant or bought a drink in a shop and thought: ‘I wonder if…

Briffa Celebrates – Music Industries Association (MIA) – The trade body for the UK musical instrument industry

#BriffaCelebrates – Music Industries Association (MIA) – “CREATING AND ENCOURAGING MUSIC MAKING”     Briffa have been working with the Music Industries Association for 10 years and we think they are…

New “Swissness” legislation, roll on “Britishness”!

New “Swissness” legislation, roll on “Britishness”! On 1 January 2017 the new “Swissness” legislation came into force in Switzerland. The purpose of this new legislation is to ensure the continued…

BriffaBites – Spring Cleaning your Intellectual Property Portfolio

#BriffaBites – Spring Cleaning your Intellectual Property Portfolio For many businesses, they register their domain names and trade marks, put the certificates at the back of a drawer and forget…

Indemnity Costs in the IPEC

Indemnity Costs in the IPEC One of the great successes of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (the “IPEC”, formerly known as the Patents County Court) is the recognition that not…

Duran Duran Sued by Publisher for Reclaiming Song Rights

Photograph by Jelena Ivanović | EXIT Photo Team Duran Duran Sued by Publisher for Reclaiming Song Rights. As is typical in publishing agreements, Duran Duran’s deal with Gloucester Place Music…

Sale of “grey” goods in the UK is a criminal offence under the Trade Marks Act 1994

Sale of “grey” goods in the UK is a criminal offence under the Trade Marks Act 1994 Grey market goods/parallel imports are genuinely manufactured goods by the trade mark owner,…

Kit Kat Barred from Keeping its Four-Finger Bar Trade Mark

Kit Kat Barred from Keeping its Four-Finger Bar Trade Mark Are you #TeamNestlé or #TeamCadbury, as once again the two confectioners battled it out in the courts over trade marks?…

Music & Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is very quickly going to change the world as we know it and the music industry is no exception. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK record labels’…

What’s ‘Appening with Facebook?

Introduction On 25 August 2016, WhatsApp announced that it was changing its terms and privacy policy to (among other things) allow communications with businesses (e.g. potentially an airline could inform…

Improving access to justice – year 1 for the shorter trial pilot scheme

The shorter and flexible trial schemes, two pilot schemes being run in the Chancery Division, were launched last year (1 October 2015) with a view to: 1) achieve shorter and…