Trademark Battle for Social Distancing, Starbucks Fights for its Frappuccino, Unbrand Asia Expo to be held in August 2020 and more, brought to you by the Trademark Attorneys at BananaIP (BIP) Counsel.<\/p>\n
Starbucks, the renowned coffee chain filed an application in the Delhi High Court for a permanent injunction against Copamocha Caf\u00e9 and Restaurant based in Kerala for the use of the trademark \u2018FRAPPUCCINO\u2019 for beverages. Starbucks submitted that it adopted the mark FRAPPUCCINO in the year 1994 and has registered the mark in over 185 counties. Starbucks also has obtained several top level domain names where FRAPPUCCINO is a prominent part. It was contended in the suit that Copamocha has adopted the mark with the malafide intent to derive benefits from the existing reputation and goodwill of Starbucks. The Court observed that Starbucks had sent legal notices and subsequently followed up with Copamocha with respect to the name change of the beverage, but the name remained unaltered. The Court therefore granted an ex-parte permanent injunction restraining Copamocha from using the trademark \u2018FRAPPUCCINO\u2019 for beverages. Facing a pandemic brings out different characteristics of human nature, one of them being able to cash-in on popular terms being used in such times. After a plethora of applications being filed for \u2018COVID-19\u2019, \u2018I survived COVID-19\u2019, people have now filed applications for the terms \u2018Social Distancing\u2019, \u2018Social Distancing Photography\u2019 as well as \u2018Social Distancing The Game\u2019 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The applications have been filed under various classes which range from beer and CBD oil, to common merchandise like t-shirts, hats, signs, stickers and games.<\/p>\n Volkswagen Group of America, subsidiary of the German automobile manufacturer, has filed for a new trademark for the term \u2018Peak Edition\u2019 with the USPTO. The application has been filed under class 12 for automobiles; engines for land vehicles; automotive interior trim; insignia for vehicle. It may be assumed that the new trademark filings are hinting at a special edition car to be released in the US market.<\/p>\n Handcraft Manufacturing, an American undergarments manufacturer, has joined hands with Emoji brand to launch a new undergarments collection. The new line of underwear will feature some of the emoji brand\u2019s most vibrant icons and designs for boys and girls, ages 2 and up. The agreement has been brokered by Retail Monster, the North American licensing agent of The Emoji Company. The collection will be launched in May and will be available at Walmart, Target, Amazon and other retailers starting in the fall of 2020.<\/p>\n Magic Gaming, the e-sports arm of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Orlando Magic, has announced a new partnership with US based gaming hardware company RIOTORO for gaming technology. The multi-year, exclusive deal makes RIOTORO the official gaming partner of Magic Gaming and will provide RIOTORO exclusive rights in manufacturing keyboards, mouse, mouse pads, headsets and earbuds for Magic Gaming. The partnership will also provide fan engagement opportunities on social media through giveaways and promotional campaigns.<\/p>\n Unbrand Asia LLP, in partnership with Franchise India, is organizing a business and networking expo which will be held at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre on 28th-29th August 2020. The expo will be beneficial for start-ups, private labels and retailers as it will give them a platform to create new opportunities. The expo will showcase innovative product and packaging solutions from various entities. The event is expected to have more than 8000 visitors.<\/p>\n Groupon Inc, a major player in local commerce, filed a domain name dispute complaint with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center against Domain Admin, Whois Privacy Corp., Bahamas (\u201cRespondent\u201d) for registering a confusingly similar domain www.ggroupon.com<\/a>. Groupon, currently active in 15 countries with over 45 million customers worldwide, is the registered trademark holder of \u201cGROUPON\u201d in several countries including Bahamas where the Respondent is located. It was contended that the addition of an additional \u2018G\u2019 to GROUPON is a case of \u2018typo-squatting\u2019 and intended to cause consumer confusion. The Respondent did not submit any response. The Panel found that the domain name was confusingly similar to the trademark \u201cGROUPON\u201d and the Respondent has registered the domain in bad faith. Therefore, the disputed domain www.ggroupon.com<\/a> was ordered to be transferred to Groupon.<\/p>\n On 2nd<\/sup> March, 2020, the Geographical Indication (GI) Registry, Chennai refused to grant the GI tag to Tripura Jackfruit as the applicant failed to prove the historical data and origin of the product. Upon the receipt of the application in December, 2018 the Registrar of GI proposed to convene a consultative group meeting consisting of experts to verify the contents of the application. The meeting was held and the expert committee after deliberations and verifications of documents, made their recommendation that the indication is a newly coined term and therefore does not qualify to obtain the tag. The applicant was further granted an opportunity to justify the application via hearing. However, the applicant was not able to demonstrate the uniqueness of the product, \u00a0nor provide any historical data supporting the origin of the product. The application was filed by the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited.<\/p>\n Authored and compiled by Uma T.S & Shreya Chaddha<\/strong><\/p>\n Disclaimer:<\/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><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This bulletin reviews major trademark and GI updates, including Starbucks’ Frappuccino injunction and the Tripura Jackfruit GI rejection. It also covers recent domain name disputes, new brand licensing collaborations, and franchising events.<\/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],"tags":[3298,1740,10953,184,1258,10936,10952,10951],"class_list":["post-68465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","tag-brand-licensing","tag-domain-name-dispute","tag-franchising-expo","tag-geographical-indication","tag-intellectual-property-india","tag-social-distancing","tag-starbucks-frappuccino","tag-trademark-battle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68465","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=68465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140742,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68465\/revisions\/140742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCitation<\/u><\/strong>: Starbucks Corporation v. Copamocha Caf\u00e9 and Restaurant and Another (CS(COMM) 676\/2019)<\/p>\nINTERNATIONAL TRADEMARK UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Trademark Battle for Social Distancing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Volkswagen Files New Trademark Application<\/strong><\/h3>\n
BRAND LICENSING UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
New Emoji Collection for Undergarments<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Magic Gaming Partners with RIOTORO<\/strong><\/h3>\n
FRANCHISING UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Unbrand Asia Expo to be held in August 2020<\/strong><\/h3>\n
DOMAIN NAME DISPUTE UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Groupon Fights its Domain Infringer<\/strong><\/h3>\n
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION UPDATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Tripura Jackfruit Loses GI Battle<\/strong><\/h3>\n