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Home / / DON'T DOODLE

DON'T DOODLE


Yahoo! News reports that Pilot Pen Company has won a French trade mark infringement case against Mattel. Pilot makes the Magna Doodle sketching toy, and holds French and Community trade marks for MAGNA DOODLE. Mattel produced a sketching toy under the DOODLE-PRO trade mark, which was found by the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris to be confusingly similar to the MAGNA DOODLE mark. Mattel has said that it will appeal.
The IPKat says it’s rather difficult to reach a conclusion based on such scant information, but it is a little worrying that the only element the two marks appear to have in common is the descriptive/suggestive word ‘doodle’.
DON'T DOODLE DON'T DOODLE Reviewed by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Rating: 5

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousWednesday, 22 November 2006 at 08:35:00 GMT

    Yes exactly, but is 'Doodle' descriptive/suggestive in French ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousWednesday, 22 November 2006 at 11:20:00 GMT

    TM consisting in English words are deemed distinctive if a French consummer with average notions of English (i.e. basic vocabulary) doesn't understand them.

    Would you consider that "griffoner" is a distinctive TM in the UK for cl 28 products ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousWednesday, 22 November 2006 at 12:14:00 GMT

    Frederic (my apologies I can't do accents), I've little doubt that "griffoner" would get onto our register in class 28. Not a guarantee, an opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousWednesday, 22 November 2006 at 14:18:00 GMT

    Ooops, I meant "griffonner".

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousWednesday, 22 November 2006 at 14:49:00 GMT

    Not a problem. One 'n' or two 'n's. Looks like a perfectly good TM (to the average anglophone consumer).

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousThursday, 30 November 2006 at 09:19:00 GMT

    I got a copy of the judgment. See my note (in French) here.

    ReplyDelete

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