Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.
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Copycat packaging proposals: a negative response
The Trading Standards Institute (TSI) in the United Kingdom has given a negative response to the government's consultation on whether to give businesses a new civil injunctive power to stop copycat packaging under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1277). You can read the TSI's reponse in full here.
At present, local authority trading standards services can prosecute for misleading packaging under the 2008 Regulations, while businesses have rights under trade mark and copyright law. The TSI is happy that things should continue this way: while big businesses may wish for greater powers, the TSI is worried that any new powers for businesses would only be of use to those companies which can afford to take legal action -- which would be unfair. The TSI feels that it can take action to deal with copycat packaging quite nicely on its own, so long as it has the necessary resources [which it doesn't] and is supplied with the relevant evidence [which may as well be used by the business concerned as be passed on to a third party for enforcement purposes].
The UK's Department for Business, Innovation & Skills promises an interim report which, following discussions with stakeholders, is expected to result in a final report by September 2014.
Posted by: Blog Administrator @ 08.37Tags: copycat packaging,
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