News

FIFA WORLD CUP 2010

The 2010 Soccer World Cup event is about to begin. As always the parties concerned are doing their best to protect their revenue from commercial activities by applying for trademark protection.

Use of Google AdWords could be a trademark infringement!

It has long remained unclear whether advertising with trademarks of third parties in Google’s advertising program, AdWords, constitutes a trademark infringement. Courts in different European countries reached different conclusions. The European Court of Justice has issued several judgments, thereby creating more clarity on the matter.

Trademark hijacking on network sites

If you are looking for “tweets” by beer brewer Heineken, most likely you will quickly find www.twitter.com/heineken. However, the user name Heineken appears to be owned by the Japanese Heine Ken. And because Twitter works on a first come, first served basis, Heineken must make do with the less appealing user name @Heineken_beer.

Is a mug of coffee distinctive for coffee?

Is an image of a mug of coffee on a bed of coffee beans sufficiently distinctive for coffee and coffee-based beverages? This is the question that the (EU) Court examined on 25 March of this year.

Roma in The Hague

At which restaurant did we make a reservation: A Roma or Roma Palace?

Visitors to the above-mentioned restaurants have made the mistake before. Italian restaurant A Roma has existed in The Hague for several years, and now Italian restaurant Roma Palace is located at around 400 metres from the aforementioned establishment.