Polar bear KNUT - the saga continues!

Two years after his sad and untimely death, German celebrity polar bear Knut (right) is again in the news and -- still (!) -- in the centre of a trade mark dispute.  Our readers will recall Knut's rise to global fame and the various trade mark issues surrounding the marketing of Knut and other high profile (polar) bears. Two weeks ago German media reported (here and here) that a sculpture of KNUT, covered in his own skin and with a damp nose (?!), had gone on display in Berlin. But that is not all – the legal disputes surrounding KNUT trade marks also continue.

The General Court of the European Union is today concerned with Knut-related dispute Case T=250/10 KNUT IP Management v OHIM — Zoologischer Garten Berlin (KNUT — DER EISBÄR; in English: KNUT – the polar bear). The court has been asked by KNUT IP Management Ltd to annul the decision of OHIM's First Board of Appeal of the Office of 17 March 2010 in Case R 650/2009-1

By way of background: Zoologischer Garten Berlin AG had – initially only partly successfully, and on appeal to the Board of Appeal, fully successfully - opposed a Community trade mark application for ‘KNUT — DER  EISBÄR’ in the name of KNUT IP Management Ltd and for goods and services in Classes 9, 16, 25, 28 and 41.  Zoologischer Garten Berlin AG had based its opposition on the following KNUT trade mark portfolio: the German word mark ‘KNUD’ (sic) for  goods and services in Classes 9, 16 and 28; German word mark ‘Knut — der Eisbär’ for goods and services in Classes 16, 25, 28 and 41; German word mark ‘KNUT’ for goods and services in Classes 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35, 39, 41, 42 and 43; German word mark ‘KNUT’ for goods and services in Classes 16, 18, 21, 25, 28, 35, 41 and 42. 

KNUT IP Management Ltd contends an infringement of Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation 207/2009, because in itsview there is no likelihood of confusion between the marks.  In a nutshell: the whole dispute hinges on a detailed comparison of the goods and services and on how the element “DER EISBÄR” affects the similarity of marks. 

To be continued..... no doubt since we live in interesting times where even a 'dead celebrity zoo animal' can still be worth millions.

Polar bear recipe here
Eisbär here
Isobar here
Polar bear KNUT - the saga continues! Polar bear KNUT - the saga continues! Reviewed by Birgit Clark on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 Rating: 5

2 comments:

  1. leave the poor animal alone. enough already!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved Knut. Know you will be always loved and thought of. Missing you kind bear.

    ReplyDelete

All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.

It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.

Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html

Powered by Blogger.