EU: The trademark race for “Je suis Charlie”
The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) has recently addressed the question whether the expression “Je suis Charlie” could be a Community Trade Mark (CTM). Despite OHIM’s general rule of not commenting on individual cases of trade mark applications before or during the registration procedures, the public interest regarding the registration of “Je suis Charlie” as a CTM, lead OHIM to make an exception.
TURKEY: Benfica has successfully opposed against a “bad faith” Turkish trademark
The Lisbon-based Portuguese sports club ‘Sport Lisboa e Benfica’, generally known as ‘Benfica’, or ‘SLB’ by loving fans has recently “scored one for the team” when they successfully opposed a Turkish trademark application made in the name of the club.
Coca-Cola files applications of hashtag trademarks
Right before the end of 2014, the soft drinks company Coca-Cola filed applications for two new trademarks at the US Patent and Trademark Office that consist of hashtags: #cokecanpics and #smilewithacoke. Hashtags became very popular because of the social network Twitter. Simply consisting of words or short expressions, they allow to easily search published messages about a certain topic.