Another day, another failed colour trade mark application. But there may be some lessons to be learned from a recent Australian decision. The quest to monopolise colour goes on, and we have written on this topic on several occasions. In the latest Australian case on colour trade marks, Frucor Beverages Limited, manufacturer of an energy drink called V, applied to register the colour green as a trade mark for its energy drinks ...
A trade mark dispute about the name Iceland highlights the issue of trade marks in relation to geographic names. A dispute has arisen in Europe between Iceland the country and Iceland the brand – Iceland is a large UK-based supermarket chain. The supermarket chain has an EU trade mark registration for the name Iceland, a registration that it struggled long and hard to get, overcoming multiple oppositions along the way ...
It has always been the practice of the Industrial Property Institute (“IPI”) of Mozambique to prohibit the refiling of trade marks that have been finally refused, which has posed a serious obstacle to trade mark applicants who wish to refile their applications in Mozambique for strategic reasons. Refiling provides the applicant with an opportunity to consider the options available to overcome obstacles posed by earlier trade marks, or refusals based on distinctiveness ...
Karanovic & Nikolic is pleased to announce its involvement in advising R&R Ice Cream, a leading ice cream company based in the UK, on Serbian law matters relating to its 50/50 joint venture with Nestlé, the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company. The advising team consisted ofSrdjan DabeticandStefan Antonicfrom Karanovic & Nikolic’s Belgrade office ...
Recent news bring us an update from the Energy Community (EC), whose latest report has outlined that Serbia has not resolved the key issue of non-compliance with the aquis – something that presents a continuous violation of obligations under the EC Treaty – by not completing the separation of Srbijagas and Yugorosgaz activities in accordance with the "Second Energy Package" ...
Karanovic & Nikolic, in cooperation with law firm Goodwin Procter, is pleased to have provided all around legal support and advice to GoDaddy on its acquisition of Devana Techologies’ ManageWP business. ManageWP is a Serbian based start-up service for managing multiple WordPress websites, developed by Devana Technologies; GoDaddy is the world’s largest internet domain registrar ...
According to last week's news reports, the President of the Provincial Government of Vojvodina, Igor Mirovic, met the Ambassador of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lazar Mirkic, in Belgrade on Thursday, 15 September, for the purpose of discussing Bosnian interest for Vojvodina's food products and the potential cooperation in the area of tourism ...
In the past several years, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and other government bodies have mandated recall of hundreds of products from the market.In some cases, companies have voluntarily recalled products due to their potential for risk of injury ...
Media reports from Croatia are telling us that the Podravka food company has sold its Studenac mineral water bottling facilities to the Slovenian Radenska company, which is in turn owned by the Czech company Kofola – one of the European leaders in the field of producing and distributing non-alcoholic drinks. The acquisition contract has been reported as signed, with the full takeover expected to happen by the end of this year ...
The Law Decree No. 211 was amended on August 30th, 2016 by Law 20,945 (the “New Law“). The following are the main amendments: Amendments on collusionThe New Law amends the crime of collusion introducing the per se standard to punish hard core cartels, providing evidence of the existence of an agreement being sufficient, independently of the power of the parties in the market and the anti-competitive effects ...
ENSafrica’s 2016 Anti-Bribery and Corruption Survey Results Overview ENSafrica’s third annual anti-bribery and corruption (“ABC”) survey has revealed that 39% of respondents have experienced incidents of bribery or corruption in the last 24 months. The key question addressed in the survey was whether or not companies are putting proportionate measures in place to deal with the rising risks of bribery and corruption ...
The credit industry in South Africa is significant and lucrative. According to the National Credit Regulator’s Consumer Credit Market Report for the first quarter of 2016, South Africa’s total outstanding gross debtors’ book for consumers for the quarter ended March 2016 was a staggering R1.66-trillion, in respect of which unsecured credit accounted for R165.16-billion ...
Dangro Invest A/S that has farm land investments in Poland has just been sold to an American pension fund. Plesner has advised Dangro Invest A/S's board of directors with respect to the transaction.Dangro Invest A/S was previously owned by 416 private shareholders, primarily Danish farmers, and over a number of years the company has built up a commercial plant cultivation business in Poland ...
According to latest media reports, the governments of Serbia and Bulgaria have agreed on the formulation of a new memorandum for the task of building a gas pipeline between the two countries, during a recent meeting of the group for gas connections in Central and South East Europe that was held in Budapest ...
There’s certainly been a great deal of litigation around the trade mark ClearVu in South Africa – passing-off proceedings before the High Court, an appeal from that judgment to the Supreme Court of Appeal, and proceedings before the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”). Now there’s another judgment, one that deals with an opposition to a trade mark application for ClearVu ...
Ever since Serbia’s Stabilisation andAssociation Agreement with the EU (‘SAA’) entered into force in September 2013, Serbian media have paidsignificant attention to the country’s obligations concerning the acquisitionof agricultural land by foreigners. The fear of one part of the public appearsto be that, due to the application of the SAA, large portions of Serbianagricultural land will be sold out to foreigners ...
Farms run as a family business tend to follow a partnership structure. However there is often a reluctance to commit the terms of the partnership to paper or else to keep the terms of an existing agreement up to date. However ensuring that your Partnership Agreement is up to date and reflects your wishes is essential for succession and tax planning purposes.Partnership Agreements Farming businesses can use different business structures ...
The Philippine chapter of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Patents 2017 was contributed by SyCipLaw partners Enrique T. Manuel and Vida M. Panganiban-Alindogan. Mr. Manuel heads the firm’s Intellectual Property department. The chapter includes information on patent enforcement, patent amendment, licensing, patent term extension, patent prosecution and opposition, border control measures, Antitrust Law and inequitable conduct, and current developments ...
Maria Ostashenko, ALRUD Partner, and Ksenia Erokhina, Senior Attorney, contributed to Comparative legal Guide to Outsourcing 2016. Within collaboration with the publishing house ALRUD specialists have prepared the chapter devoted to outsourcing and its regulation in Russia. The chapter has comprehensiblequestion-answer format ...
The Mexican government announced the second bid of Round 2 on August 23, 2016. This will be the seventh upstream bid round in Mexico since passage of the energy reform in mid-2014. The new bid round (named Round 2.2), comprises 12 onshore blocks for exploration in the Burgos and Southeastern Basins, covering collectively 5,006 km2 , with prospective resources of approximately 643.2 million barrels of crude equivalent and an original volume of approximately 93 ...
The August 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Asia Edition includes a regional update by SyCipLaw partner Maria Teresa Mercado-Ferrer entitled “A Need to Clarify Powers of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Local Government Units Relative to Peza-Registered BPO Companies”. The regional update can be found on page 15.Read the full ALB August 2016 issue for free ...
After more than a four months and a Phase II (in-depth) investigation, the Competition Commission gave conditional approval, to Sunoko's acquisition of the Star Šecer company and its subsidiary Te-To - the owner of the sugar factory in Senta. No divestments have been required from Sunoko. The ruling presents the finale of one of the most complicated merger cases in Serbia thus far and Karanovic & Nikolic is proud to have been advising MK Group throughout the process ...
Pierre Denis, Étienne Brassard, Benjamin David Gross and Sibylle Ferreira, whose practices focus on business law, financing and aeronautics, contributed to the development of a Q&A guide entitled Aviation finance in Canada: overview and published in the first edition of Practical Law’s Aviation Finance Global Guide ...
