Unlike the EUIPO and the Benelux IP Office, the Chinese Trademark Office can refuse a new trademark application based on a prior conflicting mark without the intervention of the prior mark owner. Consequently, contacting the prior mark owner to obtain a letter of consent (the “LoC”) would be a logical approach to consider when it comes to a refusal based on prior mark.

Since 1 January 2021, EU trademarks (EUTMs) are no longer protected trademarks in the UK due to Brexit. In light hereof, the UK IPO created a comparable UK trade mark for all right holders with an existing EUTM. Consequently, you might now have 2 national UK trademarks. One comparable UK trade mark and an international trademark registration designating the UK. To solve this duality, the old principle of replacement comes into play, but is this effective? Is replacement useful? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this principle?

According to the (European) patent law, “A European patent application may be filed by any natural or legal person, or anybody equivalent to a legal person by virtue of the law governing it. [Art. 58 EPC]”. What this ultimately means is that any person is allowed to draft and file their own patent application for their valuable idea or innovative product. However, before grabbing pen and paper to draft your own patent application, there seems to be only one ‘pro’ we can identify with this approach yet several ‘cons’

The stage and characters in the world of IP continue to evolve and staying ahead of the curve is critical for IP professionals towards providing informed advice to clients or corporate departments on best next steps in IP protection, enforcement and monetization. GEVERS has designed the “…on the edge of IP” newsletter to assist you with ‘edgy’ subject matters IP in the EU. Let’s take a look at our ‘building block’ articles from the past 12 months!

You must have been living on Mars lately to not know that the metaverse is the next best thing. One can give several definitions to the metaverse, but – simply put – it is a network of interconnected 3D virtual spaces in which users can interact with each other via avatars. The fun thing about such a metaverse world, is that people can experience things which cannot be experienced, our which are at least more difficult to experience, in the real world. Via the metaverse you can for example walk across the Great Wall of China with one simple click of your mouse while doing the same thing in real life will cost more effort and money.

Today the metaverse is still a mystery to many. There are more questions than answers. Particularly in relation intellectual property rights (“IPR”) infringements in these emerging worlds. We will (a least attempt) to unravel some of these mysteries.