tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post5067379270940671111..comments2024-03-28T09:05:22.006+00:00Comments on The IPKat: Innocent ... until politely requested to be guiltyVerónica Rodríguez Arguijohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05763207846940036921noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-49127156601823712013-02-06T00:39:15.013+00:002013-02-06T00:39:15.013+00:00Has anyone seen this before?
http://www.walkermor...Has anyone seen this before?<br /><br />http://www.walkermorris.co.uk/ohim-squeezes-fruit-juice-registrationsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-55654364606184733692011-03-17T19:47:05.127+00:002011-03-17T19:47:05.127+00:00OMG Ms Burchell take it easy! Jeremy just made a c...OMG Ms Burchell take it easy! Jeremy just made a casual comment about his own experiences. You don't need to get paranoid about protecting Unilever's reputation and boast that you are "doing good". Besides, how can Unilever claim to be good after harming the poor orang utans to get palm oil?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-49544252445056019022011-03-16T15:11:09.651+00:002011-03-16T15:11:09.651+00:00As the current head of trade marks at Unilever, an...As the current head of trade marks at Unilever, and a reader of your blogs, I'm finally drawn to answer your musings as below:<br /> <br />"He remembers, in his days as an IP kitten back in the 1970s, asking one of the in-house IP heads at Unilever why it was that, with such a large number of registered IP rights, their name, and the names of their brands, were so rarely featured in the published Law Reports. He was told that the company's softly-softly approach -- sometimes even offering to contribute towards the cost of reprinting the other party's stationery -- paid for itself in terms of cost-effective dispute resolution and generated respect and even some goodwill from third parties. Does this still happen, he wonders?"<br /> <br />as one of the world's largest trade mark owners, we take our rights seriously and defend them where necessary. It is however always our principle thought to focus on business and pragmatism and to act in the interest of our shareholders and not that of our lawyers pockets. An innocent (excuse the pun) or unwitting infringer may be treated with certain considerations although paying for someone else's mistakes or lack of proper trade mark mark advice is not part of, nor ever will be part of, our strategy. I like to call our approach a sensible, reasoned, pragmatic one and whilst we have certainly evolved since the 1970s we still like to follow our founder's philosophy about both "doing good" and "doing good business".Katrina Burchellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-33369900936953606532011-03-15T16:39:35.943+00:002011-03-15T16:39:35.943+00:00lol @ comment about the EU! i wonder if the DM eve...lol @ comment about the EU! i wonder if the DM ever covered the ecj's ruling in the arsenal case. had all the makings of a DM classic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-32538698337912866192011-03-15T14:17:16.104+00:002011-03-15T14:17:16.104+00:00I looked at the image before I read the article an...I looked at the image before I read the article and the first thing I thought was "innocent smoothies have started in vitamins".<br /><br />Doh.Davidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-19405704916003770552011-03-15T11:38:29.102+00:002011-03-15T11:38:29.102+00:00Quote from a Daily Mail article on the subject (ht...Quote from a Daily Mail article on the subject (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365443/Innocent-Drinks-set-inot-battle-Dawn-Reid-Innocent-Vitamins.html):<br /><br />"She [Mrs Reid] said she was aware of the existence of Innocent Drinks, known for its fruit smoothies, when she came up with the name, but never imagined it would see her as a competitor."<br /><br />As mentioned in the IPKat article, the whole get-up (font, lower case text, nothing bad etc. etc.) is so similar to that of the Innocent smoothies products that I would be shocked if there was not substantial brand association and confusion in the mind of the buyer.<br /><br />IMHO, *really* not a very clever thing to do Mrs Reid.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-65571420316692562402011-03-15T10:00:56.760+00:002011-03-15T10:00:56.760+00:00Anonymous... you are of course forgetting that the...Anonymous... you are of course forgetting that the Directive is the EU dictating in the face of our sovereign right to regulate our own TM matters : )Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-54874642403439447902011-03-14T18:21:54.435+00:002011-03-14T18:21:54.435+00:00Innocent Vitamins' choice of typeface certainl...Innocent Vitamins' choice of typeface certainly doesn't seem entirely, er, innocent.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-33220803597376940312011-03-14T18:08:57.624+00:002011-03-14T18:08:57.624+00:00What I found really surprising is that most DM rea...What I found really surprising is that most DM readers have posted comments in favour of the drinks company. I was expecting to see the usual crap about how the law is an ass and how it's all the fault of NuLab and the immigrant scum and how the BNP will fix everything.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-563387606268006062011-03-14T16:40:14.005+00:002011-03-14T16:40:14.005+00:00the filing was not done prior to the scour. It wa...the filing was not done prior to the scour. It was done after locating the problematic product.. given that it is a new product, the little person is unlikely to have passing-off rights (there might be a litte ex turpi in there for good measure) so no rights to oppose Innocent drinks reg of the mark. Very soon we have 10(1) infringement and the ability for summary jment.Aaron Woodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09187055280399284814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-59121122436945694412011-03-14T14:13:33.147+00:002011-03-14T14:13:33.147+00:00I started reading this piece expecting to learn th...I started reading this piece expecting to learn that the lesser known 'innocent' (i.e. the vitamin seller) had been in trade for longer than its more famous namesake, and that some interesting issues might arise. Instead it seems they have only been trading since January. <br /><br />Is that right, or is there a longer history before the Waitrose trade? <br /><br />If the vitamin business does only have a couple of months of trade under its belt it seems to me to be an unanswerable case of passing off. Can anyone enlighten me as to any viable defence? The claim that Mrs Reid has “never had a buyer or customer who’s had any brand confusion [to the best of her knowledge” does not impress...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com