Latest blog articles

Recently, the General Court in the HELL coffee case has confirmed that a descriptive foreign language term (German word HELL) can be granted protection under EU trade mark law (Hell Energy v. EUIPO, T-323/20).

When we talk about Trade Marks Trolls we don’t mean the ugly creature that might come to your mind. Instead, we speak about practices that constitute an abuse of trade mark law. So, how to defend yourself against such behaviour?

Does a little piece of feudalism in property law contribute to sustainability? The addressed topic was delivered by distinguished scholar Prof. dr. Vincent Sagaert and related to the general principles of property law reform, with the topic of the lecture being: "The Codification of Property Law: A...

Can a single colour alone be a trademark? The question is neither new nor unexplored. However, old wine in a new bottle is presented by the General Court in its decision rejecting an attempt to register a shade of colour for inhalers for asthma and related pharmaceutical preparations, reinstating...

Using the trade mark of someone else to describe how your own products relate to the trademark products is allowed under certain circumstances. Recently, the law changed in this respect, leaving the application of some factors uncertain.

Every year in November, one of the Faculties that forms part of the Ius Commune Research School organises the annual Ius Commune Conference. In this context, a selection of plenary sessions and workshops are held, which allow panellists to present their research and discuss topics closely related to...

Over the few past years, there has been a professionalization of social media content creators. These creators now have the power to sway their followers, start trends, or serve as role models for their audiences. These individuals, that have such online persuasive power, are called “influencers”...

On 15 October, the Swedish Consumer Agency, its Scientific Council and Maastricht University (in particular the Law & Tech Lab) hosted the webinar 'Consumers and businesses in digital markets – An unequal relationship?’, focused on bringing together the perspectives of national consumer authorities...

With AI’s recent breakthrough in machine learning, now more than ever inventors are looking for ways to protect AI systems. But obtaining patent protection depends on the right claims.

A new copyright reform (Music Modernization Act) was passed in the US Senate in 2018, comprising reforms on the term of protection for works played through online digital music services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora. However, can copyright keep on being repeatedly extended? Is this...