Tag Archives: CJEU

Eleanor Sharpston honoured for her work at the CJEU

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A few days ago, HRH Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg awarded the honour of Grand Officier of the Ordre de Mérite to Eleanor Sharpston, in recognition of her work at the Court of Justice of the European Union.

This comment from Fiona Godfrey is most apt: “Glad to see Eleanor Sharpston recognised by Luxembourg in the absence of an honour from the UK. Her work as an AG contributed greatly to the protection and enhancement of EU citizens’ rights and their family members and she made thousands of lives safer and better.” Continue reading →

CJEU rules on ‘IP translator’ as a UK trade mark

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An interesting landmark case today…

On 16 October 2009, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) applied to register the designation ‘IP TRANSLATOR’ as a UK trade mark. To identify the services covered by that registration the CIPA used the heading of Class 41 of the Nice Classification which includes translation but is called ‘Education; providing of training; entertainment; sporting and cultural activities’.

The UK Intellectual Property Office refused the application, stating that the class description included ‘translation services’. The proposed trade mark would thus have lacked distinctive character and been descriptive in nature, too similar to the class description itself.

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