Protecting brands

The trade marks register can sometimes reveal corporate infighting that would otherwise be kept quiet.
It shows that Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Enterprises is opposing trade mark applications for V Australia by a company associated with locally owned airline Virgin Blue. Huh? Virgin is opposing itself?
Normally, Virgin Enterprises owns all Virgin trade marks (Virgin Mobile, Virgin [...]

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Mischa Barton has done the creative celeb thing and is selling a range of handbags with her own brand.
All well and good, except that when she tried to register a trade mark in Australia for her name, her signature and her logo, she ran into an opposition from Australian company Mischa Accessories, which distributes handbags.
Likelihood [...]

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Trade mark applications for Jennifer Hawkins‘ swimwear brand have been opposed by local label Caussie.
Caussie sells men’s swimwear primarily on ebay.
While it looks like a David and Goliath battle, with Jennifer’s products being backed by retail giant Myer, it will probably all come down to whether Caussie and Cozi by Jennifer Hawkins are too similar.
Caussie [...]

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Katie Perry is an Australian fashion designer, specialising in jersey dresses. She applied for an Australian trade mark last year but found that her application was opposed by US pop singer Katy Perry, famous for her teenage experimentation song “I kissed a girl”.
Lawyers acting for the US singer also sent a cease-and-desist letter, alleging that [...]

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Women’s accessories brand Diana Ferrari has been unsuccessful in its attempt to stop Ferrari from registering ‘Ferrari Shop’ and the Ferrari logotype as a retail trade mark.
Diana Ferrari opposed the Ferrari trade mark applications arguing that the marks were deceptively similar and confusing for customers. At the Trade Mark Hearing, the officer disagreed.
The strength of [...]

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HBO Inc, distributor of the movie Sex and the City, has failed to stop the registration of Six in the City as a trade mark.
Brisbane based dating service Six in the City applied to register its name as a trade mark and HBO Inc filed an opposition.
The Hearing Officer of the opposition rejected HBO’s claims, saying [...]

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