Trademark & IP NewsGlobal developments, with a trademark and brand focus.
Explore global trademark, brand protection and related intellectual property developments, selected by Liangma Legalmark Trademark Team and organised by topic and publication date.
Liangma Legalmark Trademark Team selects and explains industry developments. Event dates are stated in each article.
An Administrative Panel of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has ruled on the complaint filed by French retail chain E.Leclerc (Case No. D2026-3790), finding that leclerc-precommande-gta6.com is confusingly similar to the LECLERC trademark, that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name, and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith, and has ordered its transfer to the complainant. The domain name was previously a website imitating the complainant's pre-order page; it is now inactive, but the Panel still found bad faith under the "passive holding" rule, which is unaffected.
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From 2026 to 15, 10, 14, the Ninth World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intellectual Property Judges Forum was held at the WIPO headquarters in Geneva and online, with over 970 registered judges, of whom 167 attended in person. Three of the nine sessions focused directly on artificial intelligence, respectively addressing AI-assisted and AI-generated outputs, the use of protected works in AI model training, and the use of AI in court proceedings; the remaining six sessions covered topics including software and digital technology patents, trademark fair use, platform and intermediary liability, and cross-border disputes.
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The Administrative Panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center has issued a decision in the case brought by Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA against the domain name voiths.sbs (Case No. D2026-4018), finding that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the VOITH trademark, that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name, and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith; pursuant to Paragraph 4(i) of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and Paragraph 15 of the Rules of Procedure, it ordered the transfer of voiths.sbs to the complainant. The decision specifically records that the respondent not only copied the complainant's official website but also rewrote the references to static resources in the page code from the complainant's genuine host static.voith.com to a host under its own control, static.voiths.sbs; this technical modification was treated by the Panel as key evidence of "active, calculated impersonation."
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An Administrative Panel of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has issued a decision (Case No. D2026-3708) in the complaint brought by The Village Company, LLC against the Chinese respondent Yang Lou, finding that the disputed domain name the-mrbubbles.com is confusingly similar to the MR. BUBBLE trademark, that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests, and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith, and ordering that the domain name be transferred to the complainant. At the time of the decision, the domain name was still redirecting to a third-party website that misappropriates the MR. BUBBLE brand.
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