Our colleagues Dr. Rani Mallick and Eva Maierski achieved a great success for our client Shiseido against the real.de platform. Shiseido had filed two complaints against Real seeking injunctions concerning the sale of its SHISEIDO and ISSEY MIYAKE perfume and cosmetic products on the real.de platform.

In both cases the District Court of Düsseldorf (decisions of 29 September 2022, case nos. 37 O 183/19 and 37 O 177/19) held that SHISEIDO and ISSEY MIYAKE are luxury brands that have a prestige image. Selling products of those brands on the platform real.de, which features a discounter-like sales environment, impairs the prestige image of those trademarks. Therefore, Shiseido has legitimate reasons to oppose further sale and distribution of the products pursuant to Art. 15 (2) EUTMR, preventing Real to rely on the principle of exhaustion.

The decisions are not yet final and binding.

The Regional Court in Stuttgart held that the sale of “Joop” and “Calvin Klein” perfumes in Aldi supermarkets is detrimental to the prestigious character of the brands and therefore infringes Coty’s trademark rights. The court’s decision is based on the sales environment in which the products are offered in the Aldi supermarkets. With the decision, the Regional Court (case ref. 2 U 321/20) has confirmed the decision of the court of first instance. We congratulate our Berlin partners Eva Maierski and Dr. Rani Mallick on this success. The JUVE press release can be found here.

Our colleagues Dr. Rani Mallick and Eva Maierski have published an article in the “World Trademark Review Yearbook: A global guide for practitioners 2021/2022” in which they discuss the benefits of registered design protection compared to other IP rights as well as design-protection strategies. The article can be downloaded here:

The economic value of designs_WTR Yearbook 2021-2022

This article first appeared in World Trademark Review Yearbook: A global guide for practitioners 2021/2022, a supplement to World Trademark Review, published by Law Business Research – IP Division. To view the guide in full, please go to www.WorldTrademarkReview.com.

The finance app for women which previously operated under the name “Alice” now has a new name and is starting the test phase under “VITAMIN”. Our Berlin colleagues Dr. Rani Mallick and Vasilena Wolf have advised the startup with regard to trademark law aspects in finding a name and clearing rights. We wish “VITAMIN” much success and are very happy having contributed to this great project for the empowerment of women. The full article on the launch is available here.

We already knew it, but now it’s official: Dr. Rani Mallick is a Next Generation Partner in Trademark Law in Germany – see the new edition of Legal500.

Our colleagues Dr. Rani Mallick and Dr. Bernd Weichhaus achieved an important victory against Amazon for our client Clarins before the Appeal Court in Berlin (case no. 5 U 1/18). According to the court’s decision, it is solely the online seller who bears the burden of prove to show that the distributed goods have been put on the market within the EEA with the trademark owner’s consent. Thus, the decision contributes to the strengthening of rights of brand owners. The article of the online magazine JUVE is available under the following link.