LATEST EUROPEAN TRADE MARK REPORTS

The June issue of the European Trade Mark Reports has now been published, somewhat ahead of schedule. This issue contains a curious collection of decisions relating to infringement, validity and the elusive concept of the likelihood of confusion. Two cases are available in English for the first time. They are:

*House of Prince A/S v Lidl Stiftung & Co KG, in which the Court of Appeal of The Hague (The Netherlands) rejected cigarette maker PRINCE OF BLENDS' claim that the competing GOLDPRINCE brand infringed its Benelux registration, remitting to the District Court the nullification claim lodged by the owners of GOLDPRINCE against PRINCE OF BLENDS;

*Ta'am Teva (1988) Tivoli Ltd v Ambrosia Supaherb Ltd and others, where the Jerualem Supreme Court had to rule on the similarity of two marks which had some aural similarity but where one was written in Hebrew letters, the other in English ones.

This issue also features (among other cases) the ECJ Advocate General's Opinion in Case 404/02 Nichols, on the registrability of common surnames and Mr Justice Patten's judgment in Intel v Sihra, a UK decision on the protection (perhaps the overprotection) of a well-known mark.