Hopes Shatter for European Trademark Protection for New Coke Bottle Design

A European General Court recently denied the Coca-Cola Company European Community trademark protection for the shape of its new bottle design.   European Community trademark protection provides trademark rights to the owner throughout all European Union member states.

The bottle design was determined by the court to lack distinction.  In fairness, protection of a shape in the EU is difficult to prove.  The shape must be shown to be recognizable by consumers by shape alone.  Coke failed to meet its burden of proof in this situation.

Here, Coke revamped its bottle design and made it less distinctive than previous designs, which were protected by EU Community trademark registration.  In an effort to modernize their product packaging, Coke may have drifted away from its recognizable bottle shape.

What’s the take away here?  For any company, protecting the shape of a product through trademark registration is a challenge.  The shape must be sufficiently distinctive to enable consumers to recognize the product over the competition.  If your organization is going to go down that route, be sure to create a sufficiently distinctive product that is recognizable by your customers over the competition. 

Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization.  Having the right person to help you make that decision is important.  The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game.   The first telephone consultation is free.  Email us at klynch@kliplaw.com.

IP Europe Gears Up to Level Patent Playing Field

An article today in Bloomberg.com discussed the formation of a new consortium: IP Europe.  The consortium is made up of some of Europe’s largest intellectual property stakeholders.  These include Ericsson, Airbus, French phone company Orange SA and train manufacturer Alstom. 

IP Europe plans to lobby the European Commission in hopes to make it easier for European based companies to compete with the US and China and other countries to capitalize on their innovations.  The group will concentrate on key industry patents which through industry standardization become necessary for all industry participants.  These tend to provide continuously decreasing revenues over time.   

The new IP Europe consortium will be headed by former EU Commission Official Morgens Peter Carl. 

Protecting and enforcing your intellectual property is critical to any organization.  Having the right person to help you make those decisions is important.  The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game.   The first telephone consultation is free.  Email us at klynch@kliplaw.com.

Tarheel Wins National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Last month President Obama awarded the National Medals of Science, as well as the National Medals of Technology and Innovation to a number of recipients.  Among the recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation was a UNC professor, Joseph DeSimone. 

Mr. DeSimone is the founder of Carbon3D.  He has taken a sabbatical from UNC to focus on his company which is developing new 3D printing technology. 

The Carbon3D process, referred to as CLIP, is a chemical process the uses light and oxygen to eliminate the mechanical steps used in standard 3D printing.   The process projects light through an oxygen-permeable window into a bed of UV curable resin.  The object is lifted out of the resin bath as it is grown.  The process enables the 3D printing speeds to increase substantially and enhance the quality as well.  Check out their video.

Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization.  Having the right person to help you make that decision is important.  The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game.   The first telephone consultation is free.  Email us at klynch@kliplaw.com.