Ukulele Bands Battle over IP Rights

摘要

This article considers last year's ruling of the UK Intellectual Property Enterprise Court on the ukulele band The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB) preventing a rival band from using a similar name, namely The United Kingdom Ukulele Orchestra. H.H. Judge Hacon found that UOGB could only successfully rely on passing off, as its Community word mark THE UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN was invalidly registered on account of being descriptive and having not acquired a distinctive character. The judge also dismissed UOGB's claim for copyright infringement in the "format" of two of its performances.