Clare Trade Mark

28/09/2021

🤯🤯
Copyright/design/trade mark/patent
All VERY different things!

Mmm, biscuits… 🍪

11/02/2020

It's today - the profession is the perfect one to celebrate the opportunities for in (not me personally though, I'm a lowly law grad, not a STEM bone in my body aside from my Maths A level!). Luckily I have very able colleagues who are infinitely more scientific than me.



[Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.]

12/01/2020

Oops. Bit of a potential hiccup for

Pair may have to file objection after EU trademark application is apparently made from Italy

08/01/2020

HOT LIPS, a , has successfully held on to their trade mark after a competitor tried to cancel it, claiming it hadn’t been used. There are some important bits of advice that come from this so I’ve written a short article about it (link below).

Please get in touch if you need any help with this or any other issues.

📧 [email protected]

https://www.williamspowell.com/news/hot-lips-trade-mark-owner-kisses-goodbye-to-non-use-challenge

18/12/2019

‪Vera Lynn has successfully prevented a drinks company from registering her name as a for - the company tried to argue that Vera Lynn is cockney rhyming slang for gin and wouldn’t be seen as an endorsement from the singer.‬

‪https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/17/vera-lynn-stops-name-being-used-to-market-gin-in-trademark-ruling?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other‬

Drinks company Halewood International said ‘Vera Lynn’ was cockney rhyming slang

10/12/2019

Have Disney stepped on the toes of Christian Louboutin by giving Anna red-soled boots in Frozen 2?

I was asked to comment on this for an article in World Trademark Review earlier today: https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/brand-management/frozen-2-v-christian-louboutin-could-annas-red-soled-shoes-lead-high-profile

07/12/2019

The trade mark geek in me loved this side of the Mary Quant exhibition at the V&A.
Trade mark protection ✅
Logo consistency ✅
Licensing trade mark rights to other companies to diversify the brand (clothes, footwear, hat, tights, underwear, handbags, sewing patterns, sunglasses, make up, moisturiser, dolls, press out paper dolls...) ✅
Exporting to other countries and taking the brand with you ✅
Establishing co-branded items with others (collaborations) like Kangol and Alligator. ✅

03/10/2019

Often people don’t quite understand what it is that I do. Perhaps this will help explain.

27/09/2019

Not a huge surprise that Liverpool FC have had their application for the word Liverpool rejected.

If it had been accepted, they would have had exclusive rights to use the name as a brand identifier for various products.

Liverpool FC’s attempt to trademark the word ‘Liverpool’ has been rejected by the government’s Intellectual Property Office due to the ‘geographical significance’ of the city

26/09/2019

Not such a great call by Cloudwater Brew Co., Ltd....
//
They soft launched a new non-alcoholic beer and called it, “Good Call”. Heineken, who own the Fosters brand in Europe, got a bit upset about the choice of name as “Good Call” has been used as the slogan for Fosters, and is registered as a trade mark for beers.
//
Heineken sent Cloudwater a letter asking for them to stop using the name and Cloudwater have issued a blog post saying that “it is obvious that fighting through a tribunal would be a costly distraction” and so they are changing the name to Cloudwater Soda, and trying to negotiate a wind-down period to sell off the existing stock so that they don’t have to recall all the products and relabel them.
//
A bit of an unwelcome and unexpected adult headache to contend with at the launch of a new brand, and one that still doesn’t seem to be resolved as Cloudwater’s blog post from Sunday says that they are “trying to... gain agreement”.
//
I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face... check, check, and check again, that your chosen name is risk-free or at least low-risk before you launch. Ideally get an expert (🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️) to guide you.
//
Shout if you need advice on this or are thinking of launching your own new name, or new product/service line.
//

📧 [email protected]

22/08/2019

🇪🇺™️®️🗓

• Brexit. Sorry.

• at the moment, Brexit is set for 31 October.

• if you have an EU trade mark and it is REGISTERED ® you don’t need to do anything. The UK will give you a separate new trade mark registration automatically. For free. But this will be a separate right and will need to be maintained separately (renewed, change of address etc).

• if your EU trade mark is still pending, whatever stage it has got to, on 31 October. You will need to reapply for a UK trade mark, and crucially this will cost you money 💰 on the plus side, you’ll have nine months to reapply in the UK and the new application will copy the details, including the filing date (dates are always important with trade marks) from the EU trade mark.

• if you haven’t yet filed an EU trade mark but you’re thinking of doing it, it is now mathematically impossible for the EU mark to be registered before 31 October because of the minimum amount of time it takes to register an EU mark. (Including EU marks filed using the International Registration system through WIPO). This means that either way, you will need to file a separate UK trade mark application and pay a separate fee.

• it’s up to you whether you file a separate UK trade mark application now, at the same time as your new EU application, or you wait for Brexit to happen and then use the 9 month window to reapply for the mirrored protection.

• if your EU mark is part of an International Registration through WIPO you will get a separate standalone UK national trade mark. UK trade mark protection won’t be included as part of the WIPO registration and will need to be monitored separately for renewal and maintenance purposes.

• if you’re still reading, thanks for sticking it out! If you need some information or advice on this, give me a shout.

• Email is best, [email protected] 📧

• 📷 from with thanks.