SONN Patentanwälte – IP Attorneys

  1. "ski in ski out"

    This is a registered Community trade mark. Its owner and plaintiff owns a hotel in an Austrian skiing area situated directly at the skiing slope so that one can directly ski to and from the hotel. The defendant owns a restaurant in the same skiing area. It advertises its business indirectly...

  2. Compensation and Damages

    Recently two decisions were handed down regarding payments for infringement of IP rights, one in a copyright case concerning use of a databank (4 Ob 133/13g), and one in a trade mark case concerning the mark GRANT's for artificial whisky sold in cans (4 Ob 182/13p). Both were actions by...

  3. "Withdrawal of Consent to Use"

    An inventor (plaintiff) has concluded a contract with a firm (defendant) to market together his invented product under his trade mark. The contract was concluded for an unlimited period without clauses for termination. The firm made substantial investment in tests and development of prototypes...

  4. Wonderfully distinctive

    The assessment of the distinctiveness of trade marks consisting of a slogan remains a difficult issue before patent offices and courts throughout Europe.

    In a recent case, the Austrian Supreme IP Tribunal had to decide on the registrability of the word mark "WONDERFUL TONIGHT"...

  5. When the scorpion stings

    In a case on trade mark infringement, the Austrian Supreme Court developed its previous case law on the scope of protection of trade marks. The decision also deals with the defence of non-use of the plaintiff's mark in the past with respect to intermediary rights.

    The plaintiff...

  6. Trade Mark vs Company Name

    In a recent decision of the Austrian Supreme IP Tribunal an Austrian auditor company named CONFIDA requested cancellation of three younger trade marks, all including the word CONFIDA and registered i.a. for auditing services and financial services in class 36. The cancellation action was...

  7. Demerger and Company name dispute

    In a recent judgment the Austrian Supreme IP Tribunal had to decide on a dispute between the legal successors of a company. The sign KASTNER had been used since the 16th century for a confectionary in a small town in Upper Austria. In 2008 the business was split into the confectionary shop...

  8. Take it e@sy

    In a recent judgment the Austrian Supreme IP Tribunal had to decide on the likelihood of confusion between the older figurative mark "e@sybank" and the younger Austrian figurative mark "e@syCredit".

    Whether "e@sybank" is distinctive with respect to banking services and to what extent...

  10. New CJEU reference on genericness of trade marks

    The Austrian Supreme IP Tribunal recently sent some questions to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) Luxemburg to clarify certain aspects concerning the requirements under which a trade mark becomes generic.

    In the underlying case a revocation action was filed with the Austrian...

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