North America

In Universal Standard Inc. v Target Corp. (S.D.N.Y., No. 18 Civ. 6042), the US District Court for the Southern District of New York addressed the question of whether sharing attorney-client privileged communications with a public relations firm destroys that privilege. The court found that Universal Standard waived the privilege by including its public relations firm, BrandLink, in emails discussing strategy related to the lawsuit.

In In re Hikari Sales USA, Inc., the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) issued a second precedential decision involving genericness, this year, just two days after issuing its first one. In doing so, the TTAB sent a strong message to brand owners hoping to obtain exclusive rights in highly descriptive or otherwise common terms.

A few days ago, a photograph of a bottle of Dutch tequila began circulating on the web. The creators of this product, which has not yet hit the market and probably never will, claim to have improved the taste of original tequila, based on Dutch gin, and now feel ready to enter the European market.

On August 10, 2018 several modifications to the Mexican Industrial Property Law entered into force, resulting in some new IP figures being recognised in Mexico.

In the latest international briefing for Mexico, Adrián Martínez assesses a new amendment to Mexican trade mark law dealing with bad faith marks

The Decree on Amendments to Trademark Law in force as of August 10 2018 introduced new legal concepts to the IP Law to update and reinforce the intellectual property system in Mexico.