In This Issue:

Here is yet another bulletin on trade mark and unfair competition law.

This edition includes coverage of plans of the European Commission to change the trade mark protection system. The draft amendments presented by the Commission aim at modernizing the system for registering trade marks throughout the EU, leading to a simplification and harmonization of registration procedures and to increased effectiveness of the measures used in fighting counterfeit goods shipped through EU territory. In addition, one of the Commission’s goals to be implemented through the reform is to facilitate cooperation among relevant member state authorities and the OHIM.

I encourage you not to miss the articles on current rulings and decisions issued at both the Community and domestic levels in the first quarter of this year.

In one such ruling in relation to the figurative designation ‘MEDINET’, the General Court of the EU considered, among other issues, those of a claim of seniority of earlier trade marks and a lack of identity between the marks.