News
Amazon has blocked a product due to alleged design infringement – what now?
If Amazon suddenly removes a product from its range and invokes an alleged infringement of design rights, this is not only annoying for many retailers, but often also damaging to their business. While the seller account usually remains active, affected ASINs can no longer be sold, which can directly lead to lost sales and reputational […]
Protection of fashion by unregistered Community Design rights
On 2 July 2015, the District Court Düsseldorf confirmed a preliminary injunction prohibiting the further distribution of a blouse on the basis of an earlier unregistered Community Design (Case ref. no. 14c O 55/15). The applicant had distributed a summer blouse depicting abstract drawings of flamingos in Germany since 2013. In 2015, it became […]
Shape is what matters in case of a yoghurt container
In invalidity proceedings before OHIM the Board of Appeal overruled a decision by the Invalidity Division rejecting a request for declaration of invalidity against a Community Design registration (“CDR”) for a yoghurt container based on the colorful lid and label it contained compared with the earlier design. On 10 October 2014 the Board of Appeal […]
European Court of Justice confirms the presumption of individual character for unregistered Community Design
On 19 June 2014 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had to deal with questions surrounding the individual character of an unregistered Community Design and the burden of proof for the individual character In the framework of the request for a preliminary ruling origination from Ireland (Case ref.: C-345/13). In the first question put to […]