On November 25, Cocokara Fine Co., Ltd. announced a notice and apology regarding trademark infringement that they have mistakenly used the registered trademark “3COINS” without permission at five of its drugstores operated by its subsidiary Cocokara Fine Healthcare, mainly in the Kyushu region, for a period of more than a year.
Help! They need somebody. Not just anybody: Former members of The Beatles and their successors have hired Fort Lauderdale lawyers to sue over alleged trademark infringement.
The USPTO has recently released its latest trademark fee proposal for 2020. The proposal includes substantial increases to many existing fees, and over 20 brand new fees for actions previously available at no cost. The primary purpose of these changes is to preserve and maintain the integrity of the Register by ensuring applicants adhere to U.S. specification and use requirements and to recoup more of the costs associated with TTAB proceedings.
Foreign geographical indications (GIs) may be granted protection even without a trademark registration in China. GIs are indications that identify a good as originating from a certain region or locality, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to the natural or humanistic features of the place indicated. What if an indication is accredited as a GI in its country of origin – is it sufficient to be granted protection in China without being registered as a trademark? On 10 January 2011, Fujian Longwang Trading filed an application to the Trademark Office for registration of Trademark No. 9037930 “罗曼尼·康帝” (disputed trademark, Chinese transliteration of “Romanee-Conti”) on class 33 goods of “Wine; Whiskey”. The application was approved for registration on 21 January 2012.