16th Feb 2024
As London Fashion Week celebrates its 40th anniversary, it’s a fitting time to celebrate the fashion and textile industry’s significant impact on UK PLC. According to research conducted by Oxford Economics it’s responsible for £62 billion of annual UK GDP, one in every 25 UK jobs and £1 in every £30 of HMRC’s annual tax receipts.
24th Feb 2020
A recent decision of the General Court demonstrates that the distinctiveness of a trade mark must be assessed in relation to the specific goods or services for which registration is sought. Hästens Sängar AB (which does business simply as “Hastens”) is a Swedish manufacturer specialising in beds, bedlinen, pillows and accessories. Hasten’s products have long featured a blue and white check pattern, which was apparently created in 1978 by the father of the current owner and executive chairman of the company. This check pattern is used on Hastens’ beds, mattresses and bed linen, as well as on clothing and other accessories. Hastens has registered the check pattern in Sweden and has sought to protect it by various means in many other territories. On 21 December 2016 Hastens applied to register a copyright claim in the US in a repeating “two-dimensional graphic pattern consisting of white, dark blue, medium blue and light blue rectangles arranged in a check pattern”.