Category Archives: Trademarks & Design

The Club is just Ferrari

Ferrari S.p.A. can impede a supporters Club to use trademark Ferrari without its consent. This was the decision of the Supreme Court (judgment 27.11.2013 no. 26498) that has agreed with the company of Maranello, modifying the preceding two judgments of first degree and of appeal that had instead not agreed with it. The Club had […]

Beer and geographical origin

Even if the city is called Budejovice the name Budweiser is always to be considered a word that indicates a geographical origin and as such is relevant in the trademarks discipline. The Industrial Property Code limits the registrability of geographical names as trademarks, and in the law suit existing between two beer producers, a Czech […]

Metatags and domain names are advertising

The Court of Justice ruled that the use of a meta tag or a domain name is part of the concept of advertising . The statement may seem obvious but it is not so . The sticky point is that meta tags are hidden words which, as such , are not immediately perceived by the […]

The “vacchetta”: end of the monopoly

The curtain comes down on the monopoly held by Unic (the Italian Tanning Company Association) of the so-called “vacchetta” (little cow), the mark consisting of the symbol portraying stylised animal skin. The Court of Milan ruled in this way stating the invalidity of the collective or certification trademark represented by the aforementioned mark. The lawsuit […]