12/26/2023 0 Comments Lost judgment time capsuleSecond, the SCA ruled that the appellant had used the mark in the course of trade and, as an accommodation agent, its activities fell within class 42. The SCA held that the appellant had used the mark in a descriptive manner in its advertising material but that its use of the mark as a brand, corporate or domain name was trademark use, and it rejected any “faint argument to the contrary.” The appellant relied on section 34(2)(b) of the Trade Marks Act 194 of 1993 which provides, in essence, that a registered trademark is not infringed if the mark is used as a bona fide description or indication of the geographical origin of goods or services. The SCA remarked that according to basic trademark law one may use a trademark otherwise than as a badge of origin and that the appellant's use of the name “Century City” in a descriptive manner could not amount to infringement. Century City Property Owners Association. In November 2009 Judge Harms, Deputy President (DP) of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down the judgment in Century City Apartments Property Services CC v. The accommodation agent subsequently appealed the Cape High Court’s ruling. The court reasoned that the trademark rights were based on the nature of the development rather than "a dictionary meaning" or geographical location and, since the name did not have an "exclusively geographical meaning," it was not subject to the provision prohibiting the registration of a geographical location. The court ruled that the Association’s marks were valid and enforceable and, because the significance of the Century City name flowed directly from the development of a piece of land, the name was inextricably linked to that development. The Cape High Court held that the accommodation agent had infringed the Association’s trademarks and device marks, and it rejected the counter-application. 1 The agent brought a counter-claim seeking cancellation of the Association’s trademarks on the grounds that the marks had lost their distinctiveness since Century City was a place name that had come to designate the geographical origin of a broad range of services. The Century City Property Owners’ Association filed a trademark infringement action against the accommodation agent for using “Century City” in its corporate name, brand name and domain name as such use infringed the Association’s name and device marks. The accommodation agent owns various properties in Century City and leases these, and other Century City properties, for short stays to holiday makers under the “Century City Apartments” brand name. In 2006, Century City Apartments Property Services, an accommodation agent, registered the domain name and a year later Century City Apartments Property Services CC was incorporated. The trademarks were assigned to the Century City Property Owners’ Association, a not-for-profit company. Your space” for services falling within classes 35, 36, 41 and 42 of the Nice trademark classification. Mindful of the importance of IP rights, the developer registered a number of trademarks for "Century City," as well as device marks containing interlocking Cs and the words “Century City” and “Your place. The commercial and residential development falls within the municipality of the City of Cape Town. This 250 hectare up-market, mixed-use development includes a business park, upper echelon housing, a theme park, four hotels and a shopping center. Its developers created an infrastructure that provides a wide variety of services and industries to Century City’s inhabitants. She teaches modules of the UNISA-WIPO Intellectual Property Specialization Program and is also a WIPO Worldwide Academy tutor.Ĭentury City is a well-known South African landmark and the pride of Cape Town. Pistorius is a senior adjudicator of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law’s alternate dispute resolution panel for the. Tana Pistorius, Intellectual Property Law, Department of Mercantile Law, University of South Africa, discusses a landmark case in South Africa. “Genericide”( see “ What you don’t know about trademarks” in WIPO Magazine 6/2009) is not the only danger lurking for trademarks they can also lose there distinctiveness by becoming geographical identifiers. In the Courts - The Trademarked City within a City
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