NIVEA WINS

Nivea, a global skin- and body-care brand owned by Beiersdorf Company of Germany, has prevailed in its trademark dispute with Yingzi Cosmetics Co., Ltd. The Beijing People's No. 2 Intermediate Court ruled that although Yingzi's "OUMEINA" trademark is not identical to Beiersdorf's "NIVEA" trademark, the pattern, word arrangement and wrapping were similar enough to cause customer confusion and constitute trademark infringement.

Yingzi argued against customer confusion, asserting that Nivea is not a well-enough known brand in China, that the marks "NIVEA" and "OUMEINA" are not similar, and that the respective customer classes are different (e.g., the respective brands have different price ranges and are carried in different stores). Yingzi also argued that the Nivea wrapping is typical cosmetics wrapping, and therefore did not distinguish Beierdorf's products.

Nevertheless, the court ruled against Yingzi, because the respective brands are used in the same industry and in association with same product type. Moreover, although the marks are different and the wrapping is arguably generic, the decorations (colors and shapes) on Nivea's wrapping are sufficiently unique to cause customer confusion where Yingzi's wrapping decorations were similar. The court ordered Yingzi to pay damages of RMB120,000 to Beiersdorf.

RAYBAND SUNGLASSES

The makers of Rayban sunglasses, "Luxottica" had succeeded in obtaining John doe orders against many shop owners who are selling fake Rayban sunglasses. The court has directed that action by seizure of fake products in such shops.


John Doe orders are passed to enable seizure of infringing goods and operate against any potential defendant, who is identified subsequently

KOTAK MAHINDRA WINS A DOMAIN NAME

Kotak Mahindra bank won a domain name dispute at the WIPO against an individual who had used KOTAK as his domain name. A complaint was filed by the bank against the individual of South Korean descent on July 16, 2009.

Than bank did hold a trademark registration for the mark KOTAK in South Korea which it had got on October 28, 2003.

ARUN JAITLEY FIGHTS FOR HIS DOMAIN NAME

Mr. Arun Jaitley ahs decided to move the Delhi High Court with regards to the auctioning of the url "www.arunjaitley.com".

Mr. Jaitley had suposedly approached Network Solutions Inc. (the company who owns the domain name) for the ownership of the same. He was informed that the domain name was "pending deletion". Within a day or two, the domain name was transfered to an auction Company called Portfolio Brains who in turn put up the same for an auction. The cost of the same is ruored to eb around $ 14,445.

NO TO TWEET

In a blow to Twitter, the USPTO has primarily denied the Trademark application for th word “tweet”.

Twitter originally filed for the trademark on April 16. In the application, the company expressed its desire to use tweet “through the applicant’s related company or licensee the mark in commerce on or in connection with the identified goods and/or services.” It seemed like a standard application that, once reviewed, would make “tweet” one of Twitter’s registered trademarks.

But after reviewing Twitter’s application and sifting through its listing of pending applications, the Patent Office found that three companies had already applied for trademarks that contained “tweet” in their names. They were simply too close to the trademark Twitter wanted.

The Patent Office attached applications sent by those three companies–TweetMarks, Cotweet, and Tweetphoto–with Twitter’s rejection notice. In that notice dated July 1, the Patent Office explained that each of those trademark applications were filed with its office before Twitter’s application.

“Marks in prior-filed pending applications may present a bar to registration of applicant’s mark,” the office wrote.

It went on to say that Twitter’s tweet mark “may be refused registration under Trademark Act Section 2(d) because of a
likelihood of confusion between the two marks.” It couldn’t say for sure that it would be refused registration, since the three previous applications were still pending.

MICROSOFT IN TROUBLE

Microsoft Corp. has landed itself in deep waters. The district court of Eastern Texas has given an injunction agaist MS Word. Any version of Word which can open up an custom XML file has been banned as it infringes the patent of a Canandian Comoany known as i4i.

This comes a s blow for microsoft which was planing on launching its 2010 version. Thsi alos may affect the deal Microsoft tied up with Nokia Recently to provide MS Office application to Nokia Phones.

MICHAEL JACKSON'S PATENT

The untimely death of Michael Jackson has creatin a wave of emotion. In the filed of IPR MJ is wrongly credited with his trademark move the Moon walk. This dance move was in use by other breakdances...MJ just made it famous..so famous that it its origins was atributed to him.

But there is a move which MJ did invent and he did get the Patent for the same. He was granted US Patent No. 5,255,452 for a move in his "Smooth Crminal" Video.