European Union: Trademark

The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a landmark ruling on whether political parties can use reputable trademarks for parody or campaigning purposes under EU trademark law. The case examines a Belgian political party's IKEA-themed immigration campaign and establishes new criteria for balancing trademark rights against freedom of expression. National courts must now weigh multiple factors including intent, contribution to public debate, and potential brand damage when assessing such uses.

For a growing games company, an IPO may seem a long way off. Management is focused on developing new titles, expanding into international markets, growing its player base and investing in talent and technology.

A thorough search and watch process is vital to protect a brand, but manually filtering out the noise to identify true vulnerabilities is a massive operational bottleneck. Evaluating phonetic similarities, linguistic proximity, and absolute or relative grounds for refusal requires deep legal expertise, yet practitioners spend hours simply sorting through data before they can even begin their strategic analysis.

Een persoonlijk logo, een sponsorcontract en een groeiend bereik op sociale media kunnen een sporter al vroeg in de carrière commerciële waarde geven.

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The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled on whether political expression and parody can justify the unauthorized use of a reputed trademark, examining the balance between intellectual property rights and freedom of speech. The case arose from a Belgian political party's immigration campaign that adopted IKEA's branding without permission, prompting Inter IKEA to bring infringement proceedings.

Een Birkin Bag van Hermès, de Oran-sandaal of een parfum van Maison Francis Kurkdjian. Voor vrijwel elk iconisch luxeproduct bestaat tegenwoordig een goedkoper alternatief. Op TikTok, Instagram en YouTube worden deze producten massaal gepresenteerd als ‘dupes’: betaalbare alternatieven die dezelfde uitstraling of beleving beloven als het origineel.

När ett företag försätts i konkurs glöms ofta företagets mest värdefulla tillgång bort: varumärket och de immateriella rättigheterna. Ett starkt varumärke dör inte bara för att det juridiska bolaget gör det, utan representerar ett enormt dolt värde som kan räddas, säljas och återuppstå i ny regi.