LATEST EUROPEAN REPORTED TM CASES

The March 2005 issue of Sweet & Maxwell's monthly European Trade Mark Reports has now been published. It contains English versions of the following cases:

* Rolex Internet Auction (Bundesgerichtshof, Germany): following the sale of counterfeit ROLEX watches through a website, the highest German court considers the possible liability of the internet service provider.

Fakes: are online sales driving out the honest crook?

* Lancome Parfums et Beaute & Cie v Kruidkat Retail BV (Amsterdam Appeal Court, the Netherlands): the replacement of genuine bar codes by false ones and the repackaging of goods land the defendant in trouble as a copyright infringer as well as a trade mark one.

In addition, this issue of the ETMR features some highly significant decisions, including

* Case C-245/02 Anheuser-Busch v Budejovicky Budvar (European Court of Justice): reference to the ECJ on the applicability of TRIPs to disputes involving trade names, with some extra piquancy in terms of comments on trade mark use;

Electrocoin: a rare saga of bears and bars

* Electrocoin Automatics Ltd v Coinworld Ltd: in this absorbing case Geoffrey Hobbs QC analyses the legal consequences of a very unusual set of facts and advances his "cross-pollination" theory of trade mark infringement.