Amazon actively fighting counterfeits, a problem with Nerds, phonograms in TV shows and CMOs, and Hamilton losing the legal battle over Hamilton's trademark

Good morning everyone. Hope you all had an amazing weekend and a good start of the week. For this week we are bringing you the following news:

Nerds candy files for trademark infringement.

Ferrara Candy Co, the company behind the candy “Nerds” filed for trademark infringement in the US, against Tops Cannabis, alleging that the company had been offering marijuana-infused parodies of its Nerds and was infringing its trademark.

According to the lawsuit, Tops Cannabis had allegedly been selling the parodied product, which were marketed as “Medicated” Nerds Rope.

The problem here, apparently, goes beyond simple trademark infringement. Indeed, confusion between the two products led to multiple children ingesting the THC-infused candies.

This is not the first time a lawsuit as such was filed. Indeed, in Florida last year, the manufacturers of Sour Patch Kids candies, Mondelez Canada, sued retailers for selling THC-infused edibles dubbed “Stoney Patch Kids”.

Amazon goes after 2 influencers for selling fake luxury articles

2 influencers, who will not be named, are being accused of IP infringement for collaborating with sellers that were offering fake luxury products for sale from brands like Dior, Gucci or Chanel.

Both influencers managed to share and present the infringing products on their stories and share hidden links that were then leading their viewers to the fake products. Apparently, one of the influencers even gloated, commenting that thanks to this hidden link, people were able to purchased counterfeit products without Amazon being able to detect it and cancel the order.

On phonograms incorporated to audio-visual works

According to a recent decision from the CJEU, when a song is incorporated into an audio-visual work, an appropriate contractual arrangement between the holders of the rights in the song and the producers of such work should be reached, so that remuneration for the related rights in the song at the time of such incorporation is paid by means of such contractual arrangements. Hence, when a TV channel broadcasts a TV show, said TV channel does not have to pay remuneration for the songs that are being broadcast within the TV show.

This decision follows a case brought by two Spanish Collective Management Organisations (CMOs), which filed for infringement against Atresmedia (a Spanish TV channel) claiming that Atresmedia, and all other TV channels, should pay CMOs for the songs that are broadcasted as part of the movie or TV show broadcasted at the moment. According to the CJEU decision, TV channels do not have to pay said royalties to the CMOs.

Hamilton loses a 3-year legal battle over the “Hamilton” trademark

Hamilton is a Swiss-based watchmaking company that has been selling watches since 1892. The company filed for registration in the EU in 2017, application which Lewis Hamilton opposed, claiming that such application was made in bad faith. The EUIPO ruled in favour of the watchmakers, considering that the company had been using the trademark Hamilton since 1892, its products being worn by people like Elvis, well before Lewis Hamilton was born.

In addition, the EUIPO established that there is no natural right for a person to have his or her name registered as a trademark when that would infringe third parties’ rights.

And this is all for this week! See you next week.