Cambodia has recorded Kampot Pepper as the first geographical indication (GI) registered via the Geneva Act of WIPO’s Lisbon System, which provides protection for names identifying the geographic origin of products such as coffee, tea, cheese, wine, pottery, and cloth.
EUIPO and Eurojust step up cooperation to tackle IP crime The EUIPO and the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) are stepping up their cooperation to more effectively tackle criminal abuse of intellectual property rights in the field of counterfeiting and online piracy. A Service Level Agreement (SLA) was signed to boost Eurojust’s capacity and expand its expertise to support complex investigations in this field.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “TTAB”) recently published a precedential decision regarding the treatment of trademarks for wine and spirits and their potential for being “deceptively misdescriptive” pursuant to Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a). Section 2(a) has three provisions, all of which are relevant to the alcoholic beverage industry. In this new precedential decision, the TTAB held that “[t]erms that are not specifically place names, but which may have ‘geographical association,’ may provide bases for claims under the general deceptiveness provision of Section 2(a).”
Important Notice: The Québec government has announced its intention to modify the French Charter in order to better protect the French language in Québec. We do not know precisely when these changes will come into force, nor what they will entail. That said, we know that the Québec government wishes to announce these changes sometime in 2021. As soon as we know more, our firm will issue a publication advising of these changes and their coming into force, and make any necessary amendments to our French Language Requirements in Québec series.