There’s a wealth of trademark law information out there, and it’s not limited to materials written in English. Translation websites now make foreign-language blogs easy for English readers to access. I’ve recently tried two: Babel Fish, a Yahoo! service, and Google. With a few clicks and a few seconds, these sites provide passable (though not perfect) translations to English from Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian, and Spanish. For those who have limited themselves to English language sites, these features almost literally open up a whole new world.
Two foreign-language trademark law blogs bear immediate mention. The first is the German-language MarkenBlog (“Marks Blog”). Writing from Kiel, Germany, the Prehm & Klare law firm reports on European trademark law developments in the same tradition that Marty Schwimmer’s The Trademark Blog and Ron Coleman’s Likelihood of Confusion report on such happenings here. In the last few days, MarkenBlog has discussed historic German trademarks, a Swiss court’s rejection of a color mark, and the licensing of the French LOUVRE mark to a museum in the United Arab Emirates.
The other is the French-language Le Petit Musée des Marques (“The Little Museum of Marks”), which provides a fun and sometimes irreverent look at the world of trademark law. It recently has reported on offensive marks in the United Kingdom, a Japanese beer containing milk called BILK, and whether SPEED DATING is registrable as a mark in France. PMDM is published by Frédéric Glaize, an attorney with the Paris-based Meyer & Partenaires. It looks like he’s been at it a while, since PMDM’s archives date back to August 2004.
These are great resources. Not only do they provide additional thoughts on trademark law issues, but they also give Stateside readers insight into what’s going on across the Atlantic. They spot developments that may have gone unnoticed here and highlight resources, including other foreign language blogs, that allow for additional investigation. I’m grateful I now have access to the information they provide.
Of course, these fine blogs are not the only foreign trademark law resources worth reading. In future posts, I’ll discuss other resources — including foreign blogs written in English — that also should not be missed.