trademark

Starke Managing Counsel Daniel Albrecht attended the Marques 2019 Annual Conference that took place in Dublin last week. Over 800 attorneys and trademark attorneys took part at this conference. The meeting focused on changes in technology and the effect on IP, but in fact the hottest topic was the Geographical Indication Protection (GI). Here a lot of import matters changed world wide and need a better clarification. Beside that Daniel attended the constitutional meeting of the new formed Cyberspace team. It was great to meet many old and new friends in the IP business and to learn more...

Starke managing counsel Daniel Albrecht will take part at the 33rd Marques Annual Conference. The 2019 MARQUES Annual Conference will be held in Dublin from Tuesday 17th - Friday 20th September 2019.

Brands are being buffeted by changes in today’s fast-moving world, driven not just by legal and regulatory developments but also by politics, technology and new business models.This year’s MARQUES Conference looks at the impact of these changes, and how brand owners and IP practitioners can navigate them. Topics covered in the panel sessions will include: megatrends, the impact of...

ECTA Annual Conference completed on last Friday in Edinburgh. With more than 1500 Members, coming from all Member States of the EU and beyond, ECTA promotes the knowledge and professionalism of the Intellectual Property Law community in the fields of Trade Marks, Designs, Copyright and other Intellectual Property Rights, within the European Union. Starke is a member since 2019.

With about 900 attendees this Annual Conference was a great success! Our team took part at many interesting discussions, speeches and other programs.

Two of the highlights were the session about EU...

Starke in the news again. The China court official online portal reports about our trademark case that we ran together with our partner Jingsh Law .

This announcement shows the importance of our case and will race the chances to get a high damage compensation for our client Hörmann.

Hebei Huoman unauthorizedly uses similar trademarks of our client on their products and advertising. The regional market supervisory authority has already stated that Huoman has infringed the Unfair Competition Law and has issued a fine.

The volume of trademark applications in China has consistently been growing in the past 15 years. This growth, together with the fact that China is a first-to-file trademark system, has led to the proliferation of so-called ‘pre-emptive trademark applications’, filed in bad faith. Bad faith refers to the filing of a trademark that the applicant knows to have been used and developed by another brand. This is done with the intention of making a profit out of it, by selling the trademark back to the brand. Until now, the law made it easy for the so called “professional squatters” to file such...

Trademarks are used to distinguish the goods and services from different trademark owners. Trademarks are unique names, symbols, or logos which have distinctive characteristics.

Trademarks are categorized into product marks, service marks, certification marks and collective marks. And the elements that can combine a trademark include (Chinese) characters, figures, letters of the alphabet, sound, colour combinations, 3-dimensional symbol and their combinations according to the Article 8 of China Trademark Law. A trademark seeking registration shall be so distinctive as to...

On November 14th, 2018 the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce issued the largest trademark infringement case decided by the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce in the past twenty years – the trademark infringement of the “Onitsuka Tiger” branded ASICS sneakers, with a fine of 55.87 million RMB.

ASICS is a Japanese limited corporation which has registered many trademarks , including those with the word “tiger”. In December of 2017, the Fengtai Branch of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce,...

In August 2018, China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) was renamed the National Intellectual Property Administration ( CNIPA ). It was reorganized under the new government body the State Administration for Market Regulation ( SAMR ).

SAMR was formed by the incorporation of several and currently separated administrative bodies. The following agencies or functions will be integrated under SAMR:

the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) (to be dismantled); the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) (to be...

Our managing counsel Daniel Albrecht delivered a keynote speech about trademark protection in Europe at the G40 IPR Summit 2018 in Beijing , at November 14, 2018. The event was organized by the IPR daily as closed door summit for Asia-Pacific IPR leaders.

The G40 IPR Leaders Closed-Door Summit is the first private invited closed-door summit in the industry. This year's G40 summit focused on the Asia-Pacific region, which has the most active economic development and is also a key strategic hub for international business competition.

The 2018 G40 Asia-Pacific IPR Leaders...

Fighting trademark cases can be a long, tough battle in China but in October 2018, Richemont’s Alfred Dunhill brand hailed a “major trademark victory” in the country with the luxury brand awarded “uncommonly large” damages by a Chinese court.[1]

It also said the ruling is a “landmark victory in China for any global brand” and “demonstrates the country’s progress in IP protection,” as well as its own “unequivocal resolve” in tackling infringement.[2]

The brand has been awarded CNY10 million ($1.47 million) after the Foshan Intermediate People’s Court,...