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Success in Landmark Austrian Supreme Court Trademark Case
Interlaw’s partner firm in Austria, Binder Grösswang, has successfully defended Austria’s market leader for mobile wallets for the management of loyalty cards in a landmark trademark case.
The app provides users with a single source for all loyalty cards, meaning they do not need to carry numerous plastic cards with them or to install a separate app for each loyalty card on their smartphone.
To distinguish the different loyalty cards in the app and to promote them, the trademarks of the different holders are used. However, one of the issuers of loyalty cards saw this as an infringement of its trademarks and applied for an interim injunction.
The Supreme Court dismissed the application and clarified under which conditions another's trademark may be used without the owner's consent as a reference to a service or accessory (Section 10 (3) (3) Austrian Trademark Protection Act).
The successful Binder Grösswang team consisted of Counsel Michael Horak and Associate Antonia Zaponig (both IP/IT).
