No OYO for Infringer, Cartoon Network Becomes Eco-friendly, Facebook\u2019s Current Shock over Cryptocurrency and more, brought to you by the Trademark Attorneys at BananaIP (BIP) Counsel.<\/p>\n
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” – Seth Godin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
INDIAN TRADEMARK UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
No OYO for Infringer<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Oravel Stays Pvt Ltd, operating OYO in India and abroad, had filed a trademark infringement suit against Hotel Metro, a hotel operating in Jaipur, Rajasthan for using the trademark OYO and logo in front of the hotel\u2019s property in a negative manner. Oravel stated in its suit that Hotel Metro has been indulging in unlawful activities of defaming OYO by making false representations before the public. It was therefore averred that the adoption and misuse of the identical trademark and logo by Hotel Metro amounts to detriment of the goodwill and reputation of the OYO trademark. The Delhi District Court observed that Oravel has made a prima facie case for infringement and Hotel Metro\u2019s adoption of an identical trademark was a deliberate move to demean the registered trademark. The Court, therefore, granted an ex-parte decree of permanent injunction restraining the Hotel Metro from infringing and passing off the registered trademark OYO.<\/p>\n
INTERNATIONAL TRADEMARK UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Facebook\u2019s Current Shock over Cryptocurrency<\/strong><\/h3>\n
It looks like Facebook\u2019s trouble over their new cryptocurrency project Libra is far from over.\u00a0 Finco Services, a US based software and banking company, operating as Current, has filed a suit against Facebook and its subsidiary Calibra, which operates Libra and branding company Character SF, for trademark infringement. Current has claimed in the suit that Facebook is using a swirly tilde logo for its Libra cryptocurrency, which is very similar to the logo being used by them for their mobile applications. It is interesting to note that both the logos have been designed by Character SF over an interval of three years. Current has alleged trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false designation of origin and is seeking injunction against the ongoing infringement by Facebook.<\/p>\n
Riot Over Apparel<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Riot Games, a US based video game developer, has filed a trademark infringement suit against e-sport organization Riot Squad. The League of Legends maker has alleged in the lawsuit that Riot Squad has adopted the brand Riot unlawfully for apparels and such use will make consumers mistakenly believe that Riot Squad is \u201cassociated with, sponsored or endorsed by, or otherwise affiliated with Riot Games\u201d. Riot Games is seeking damages as well as injunction on the sale of all materials and products that use the mark.<\/p>\n
BRAND LICENSING UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
ColourPop with Disney Magic<\/strong><\/h3>\n
ColourPop, a US based cosmetics brand has collaborated with Disney to launch a new cosmetics collection. The collection is inspired by the Midnight Masquerade line of Disney princess dolls, which includes the characters of Princesses Belle, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Tiana, Esmeralda, Megara, Aurora, and Giselle. The collection includes eyeshadow palette, eight powder blushes\/highlighters, and liquid lipsticks.<\/p>\n
Cartoon Network Becomes Eco-friendly<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Cartoon Network India in collaboration with eco-friendly apparel brand Quancious, has launched a one of its kind, ecofriendly apparel collection. The collection is inspired by well-known characters from Cartoon Network shows such as The Powerpuff Girls, We Bare Bears, Johnny Bravo, and Dexter\u2019s Laboratory, and includes an assortment of clothing ranging from sarees to neckties. The collection is available at both retail as well as online stores like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Tata Cliq.<\/p>\n
FRANCHISING UPDATES<\/h2>\n
Mexican Burrito\u2019s Pan Expansion in India<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Amigos Burrito, a Mexican quick service restaurant chain based out of Toronto, Canada has partnered with Franchise India for its pan-India expansion. The burrito brand launched its first outlet in Gurgaon this year and plan to expand to 25 more outlets by 2022. The burrito chain will be launched in three different franchise models such as full dine-in restaurant with liquor or without liquor, express stations, and kiosks at food courts.<\/p>\n
DOMAIN NAME DISPUTE UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Judicial Watch\u2019s Dispute Straddles the Dot<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm in the United States, filed a domain dispute with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center against Earl Cassorla for the domain www.judicial.watch.com<\/a> registered with Whois Privacy LLC, United States. The law firm has been using the trademark Judicial Watch and the domain www.judicialwatch.com<\/a> since 1994 to distinguish and identify its legal services. The WIPO panel finds that the domain www.judicial.watch.com<\/a> is identical to Judicial Watch. In doing so, the panel cited the established precedence on top-level domain names (TLDs) as well as the recent trend which is to straddle the dot in the domain, thus making the generic TLDs relevant to the \u201cidentity or confusing similarity\u201d analysis. The panel concluded that the disputed domain is registered and used in bad faith. Therefore, the domain www.judicial.watch.com<\/a> is ordered to be transferred to Judicial Watch.<\/p>\n
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Machilipatnam Imitation Jewellery Loses GI Battle<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Geographical Indication (GI) Registry, Chennai refused to grant the GI tag to Machilipatnam Imitation Jewellery due to lack of evidence about the historical origin and reputation of the product. The GI Registry in its order stated that the fundamental deficiencies cited in the examination report were not rectified with proper supporting documents and the uniqueness of the product was not proved to achieve a GI tag. The application was filed by The Machilipatnam Imitation Jewellery Park Members Welfare Association in 2013.<\/p>\n
Authored and compiled by Shreya Chaddha & Uma T.S<\/strong>
\n\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAbout BIP\u2019s Trademark Attorneys<\/strong>
\nThe Trademark News Bulletin is brought to you by the Trademark\/Copyright, IP Transactional Strategy Divisions of BananaIP Counsels, a Top IP Firm in India. Led by\u00a0<\/em>Sanjeeth Hegde<\/em><\/a>, BIP\u2019s trademark attorneys are among the leading experts in the field. If you have any questions, or need any clarifications, please write to\u00a0<\/em>contact@bananaip.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0with the subject: Trademark News.<\/em>
\nThe weekly trademark news initiative is a part of their pro bono work and is aimed at spreading trademark awareness. You are free to share the news with appropriate attribution and backlink to the source.<\/em><\/p>\nDisclaimer:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Kindly note that the news bulletin has been put together from different sources, primary and secondary, and BananaIP\u2019s reporters may not have verified all the news published in the bulletin. You may write to\u00a0<\/em>contact@bananaip.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for corrections and take down.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This bulletin explores recent trademark infringement cases, international disputes, and notable brand licensing deals. It includes legal updates on GI applications and domain name conflicts, providing a clear analysis of current trends in intellectual property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[3298,5060,10629,10681,2723,184,5,41],"class_list":["post-66338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-trademarks","tag-brand-licensing","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-domain-dispute","tag-eco-friendly-apparel","tag-franchising","tag-geographical-indication","tag-intellectual-property","tag-trademark-infringement-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140251,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338\/revisions\/140251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}