Tag Archives: General Court

MACCOFFEE Found Likely To Ride Coat-Tails Of McDonald’s EU ‘Mc’ Family Of Trademarks

On July 5, 2016, the European General Court rendered an interesting decision illustrating the broad protection enjoyed by those trademarks with “a reputation in the EU.” The full text of the decision is available in English here and in French here.

The case involved a Singapore company called Future Enterprises, which filed an EU trademark for MACCOFFEE on October 13, 2008 for a wide variety of food products and beverages in classes 29,… More

Date Me, Snog Me But Don’t Meet Me in the European Trademark Office

date me“Be creative!” is an important piece of advice which you often hear from European trademark lawyers. Today, more than ever, this recommendation should be taken seriously. The reason is very simple: the Community trademark office is increasingly stringent towards marks that consist of verbal messages. A recent case provides a good example:

A French company, Intervog, is the owner of two figurative community trademarks, … More