Posts Tagged "mark"

No Trade Mark Protection for Rubik’s Cube Puzzle

Posted on Dec 9, 2016

No Trade Mark Protection for Rubik’s Cube Puzzle

Discussion: Court of Justice of the European Union; November 10, 2016, Case 30/15, Simba/EUIPO (full text here). ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ In this case the CJEU could further clarify how to apply the rule of European trade mark law providing that trade marks that consist exclusively of a shape or other characteristic of a product that is necessary to obtain a technical result cannot be protected. The decision is interesting for South African trade mark law, since section 10(5) of the Trade Marks Act contains an almost identical rule. Simba, a...

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Supreme Court of Appeal Losing Its Shape

Posted on Jan 29, 2015

Supreme Court of Appeal Losing Its Shape

INTRODUCTION The Supreme Court of Appeal has been blessed for the past few decades by having in its ranks judges who have experience and expertise in the field of Intellectual Property Law. One thinks of Judges like Chris Plewman and Louis Harms who had a wealth of experience in handling IP cases while practising as advocates at the bar and in hearing such cases both in Provincial Divisions as well in the Supreme Court of Appeal. This factor contributed substantially to the quality of IP judgments emanating from the Supreme Court of Appeal generally being of a high standard. The development...

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