Adopting a company name will not in itself amount to "use in relation to goods or services" under Article 5(1) Trade Marks Directive.

BRIDGE is not confusingly similar to BAINBRIDGE, even in Italy.

The UDRP and the requirement of bad faith. A recent WIPO decision serves as a reminder that a successful complaint under the UDRP requires more than an infringement of the complainant's trade marks.

An appeal panel of the Nominet UK Dispute Resolution Service ("Nominet DRS") has held that the registration of the domain name www.champagne.co.uk is an abusive registration, which the organisation of champagne growers has the right to prevent.

The UK Intellectual Property Office consults on fast tracking UK patent grants.

• The new UK Trade Mark Registry practice of not searching on relative grounds came into effect on 1 October 2007. See our September eBulletin for details.
• ICSTIS, having just managed to become a household name thanks to imposing its highest ever fine (on Opera Telecom for its part in the GMTV phone–in saga), now wants to change it. It will become Phonepayplus from 15 October. In a survey, around half those asked thought it was the name of a commercial service.
• Automatic transfer of domains where the registrant has offered no defence to a DRS complaint is coming to .co.uks.
• Are ISP protections about to be restored? The Belgian SABAM case in which service providers were held liable to introduce filtering software to prevent P2P infringements is going to appeal.
• Bluetooth marketing is not covered by anti-spam laws. ICO issues new guidance.
• The first round of Dot Mobi auctions has taken place, hosting.mobi the winner so far at $100K.

Should you wish to receive more information on any of the above news items, please e-mail any of our IP lawyers.

Next month: shape marks, where things stand following the Benetton and Glaverbel cases.