LATEST EUROPEAN TRADE MARK CASES

The February 2005 issue of Sweet & Maxwell's European Trade Mark Reports has now been published. Among the cases in this issue are English-language translations of the following cases:

* Emmanuel de Landtsheer v Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin and LVHM Fashion Group (Brussels Court of Appeal) - a vigorous scrap over the issues of validity and infringement of a colour mark (orange, as usual ...)

* Geoffrey Inc v Nails R Us - Instituto de Beleza e Saude LDA (Court of Appeal, Lisbon) - on the power of a trade mark owner to oppose the registration of an allegedly confusingly similar name as a business name.

Rennie: the Finnish Supreme Court provided welcome relief ...

* Roche Consumer Health (Worldwide) Ltd v Vitabalans Oy (Supreme Court, Finland) - whether RENICHEW, used by the defendant for health foods, was likely to be confused with the RENNIE device mark and the DIGESTIF RENNIE word mark for goods in Class 5.

* Paglieri Spa v Gabbiano SpA (Court of Cassation, Rome) - on locus standi to seek a declaration of invalidity of the FARAMED trade mark.

Apart from these decisions, there are cases from the Court of First Instance, from OHIM and from the UK. As usual, if you know of any interesting and/or important trade mark case that ought in your opinion to be reported in the ETMR, don't forget to tell the IPKat.