In a decision dated January 28, 2026 (no. 24-14.760), the French Supreme Court has overturned the approach previously taken by the lower courts regarding the limitation regime applicable to trademark invalidity actions...

If you are a brand owner, you are often faced with infringing domain names which are registered for third parties and incorporate your brand or trademark – offering counterfeits, for example.

The Federal Patent Court decided in a recently published decision that the designation “Der kleine Eisbär” (“The little Polar Bear”) is registrable as a word mark for “recorded data carriers, exposed films and printed matters”. Der kleine Eisbär is a cartoon character which is very popular, especially among children, in Germany.

"These Germans are crazy" – it is something to this effect that the judges of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) may have thought when they now corrected the 2017 jurisdiction

Das Bundespatentgericht (BPatG) hat vor Kurzem die deutsche Farbmarke Blau des Nivea-Herstellers Beiersdorf gestärkt (Beschluss vom 18.10.2019 - 27 W (pat) 1/17).

A German court has ruled that Ferrari, famous maker of Italian sports cars, must give up its TESTAROSSA trademark in that country.

In a recent decision of July 1, 2010 (file number I ZB 35/09) the German Federal Court of Justice confirmed a decision by the Federal Patent Court refusing registration for a wordy statement which in English would read as follows

Read our IP Brochure on trademark protection in Europe.

Which points do you need to observe when requesting a preliminary injunction for trademark infringement? In this episode, our attorney-at-law Claus M. Eckhartt explains the nuts and bolts of PI proceedings in trademark litigation.

Jurisdiction on Google ads was extended by a further aspect recently. The case at issue, however, did not relate to "keyword advertising"

In two parallel cases, the German Federal Patent Court has ruled that the positioning of a bottle or tube on a car roof could not be registered as a position sign as the sign lacks distinctiveness.

In preparation of Brexit, the European Commission published its Draft Withdrawal Agreement on 28 February 2018, which sets out the arrangements for the withdrawal of the UK and Northern Ireland from the EU.

The relevant factors to be considered in the assessment of similarity between two marks are phonetic similarity, graphic similarity and similarity in meaning.

Bad luck for all imitators: The city of Munich had the colloquial name for the biggest beer fest in the world ("Wiesn") protected by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

On 30 September 2015, the General Court of the European Union (T-364/13) ruled that the caiman logo that Polish apparel company Mocek and Wenta sought to register with the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market was similar enough to Lacoste's iconic crocodile logo to cause confusion.

On 21 October 2015, the German Federal Court of Justice decided that a bank cannot refuse to disclose personal data of a client if his or her bank account was used to receive payments ‎for the sale of counterfeit trademark goods.

A bank is entitled to use the name "DAX®" to communicate that its financial instrument is linked to the rate of the DAX.

Two recent judicial decisions in Germany have the potential to limit the scope of protection conferred by color trademark registrations.