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[ipplanet]

The General court issued a decision in cases T-345/08 and T-357-08 which affect the dispute over the similarity of marks BOTOX, BOTOLIST and BOTOCYL.
Helena Rubinstein SNC Company filed applications for European trademarks BOTOLIST and BOTOCYL in Class 3 - cosmetics.
Trademarks are registered by the OHIM in 2003.
In 2005, Allergan, Inc. request for cancellation of the marks because of its earlier European and national trademarks BOTOX in class 5-pharmaceuticals products.
According to Allergan BOTOX marks are well known brands so that said later marks should be deleted. In support of this company provides ample evidence for the great popularity of its brands.
Helena Rubinstein SNC challenge the evidence because the majority of them are dated after the date of application of the marks BOTOLIST and BOTOCYL.
The Court considers that the evidence in the form of articles in print media which are dated before the date of application of the later marks represent strong evidence that must be upheld. As regards the evidence which have a later date the court believes that reputation is built long time so that evidence can not be rejected if their character supports this construction commenced before the filing date of the marks.
BOTOX brand owned 74.3 percent market share in 2003 in Britain and the degree of awareness among the relevant audience was 75%. According to the court it is enough to consider that the mark is well known.
Regarding the similarity of the marks. A BOTO prefix is not used widely for goods related to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics so its use in those later marks could lead to consumer confusion.
In addition the goods in question marks are similar.
In view of this the court believes that later trademarks BOTOLIST and BOTOCYL may derive benefits from the distinctive character of a mark BOTOX which is why their registration should be deleted.
http://intellectualpropertyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/01/victory-for-botox-in-europe-botox.html

[LoveOfIP]

Is the trademark forum the appropriate place for you to be posting this stuff?

[Spielman]

I agree with "loveOfIP" on your posts. It appears as though you are simply reposting your blog with self-serving links. If you have some question or have an acutal topic that merits discussion, then please feel free. Otherwise, let your blog generate its own linking and traffic. This is not the place for those links.

[Kaitlin]

Ipplanet's posts are nicely summarized snippets of interesting TM developments in the wider world which are good to have access to, particularly when summarized in English as has been done here. 

That being said, I do feel that the TM and Copyright forums are probably not the right venue for legal updates of this sort.

Perhaps the Ipplanet could simply move the TM and copyright posts to the "News" forum under "Other" on the Patent forum page? 
(While the "other" category appears on the Patent forum page, it clearly isn't restricted to patent-related forums, since the TM and Copyright forums are listed there as well.)