Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Merlene Engelbrecht
OPINION | The legal risks of naming a business after yourself
Comments Gift article Bookmark 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article An Estée Lauder-owned Jo Malone London product on the left and a Zara fragrance created by the British perfumer Jo Malone (right). Estée Lauder has launched a trademark infringement claim, contending that the use of the words “Jo Malone” on Zara fragrance packaging and products amounts to the use of an identical or similar trademark for identical goods, creating a likelihood of confusion, write the authors.
Bizcommunity.com· 4h Why the UK Supreme Court ruling on post-sale confusion matters to global brands 3 min read
List of Partners (vendors) Enable the use of cookies for making advertising more relevant and to support the sourcing of high-quality content on this site. If you don't allow this use, then ads shown to you may be less relevant. Third party analytics cookies to understand how visitors use our websites so we can make them better, and the third parties can develop and improve their products, which they may use on websites that are not owned or operated by Microsoft.
Why the UK Supreme Court ruling on post-sale confusion matters to global brands Original
2 days7 days30 daysBy Industry Show more Advertise your job vacancies Subscribe to daily business and company news across 19 industries The UK Supreme Court has delivered a ruling that brand owners should note. In Iconix Luxembourg Holdings SARL v Dream Pairs Europe Inc [2025] UKSC 25, the court considered whether trade mark infringement can be established based on post-sale confusion, even if there is no confusion at the point of sale.
MetaBirkins NFTs: The Bold Infringement on Hermès’ Iconic Birkin Trade Mark
Birkin Background In the first verdict of its kind, a New York federal jury on 8 February 2023 found that non-fungible token (NFT) artist Mason Rothschild’s MetaBirkins NFTs infringed the rights of Hèrmes International S.A. and Hermès of Paris, Inc. (collectively, “Hermès”) to its BIRKIN trade mark and awarded the French luxury goods company $133 000 in damages.
MetaBirkins NFTs: The Bold Infringement on the iconic Hermès Birkin Trade Mark
By Merlene Engelbrecht, Senior Associate at Spoor & Fisher Birkin Background In the first verdict of its kind, a New York federal jury on 8 February 2023 found that non-fungible token (NFT) artist Mason Rothschild’s MetaBirkins NFTs infringed the rights of Hèrmes International S.A. and Hermès of Paris, Inc. (collectively, “Hermès”) to its BIRKIN trade mark and awarded the French luxury goods company $133 000 in damages.
People are pretending to be 'NPCs' on TikTok and it's not just weird, it's also lucrative Original
The one constant the internet offers us is a continual rotation of trends. Months ago, the trend was people exhibiting "main character energy". People were imagining themselves as main characters in their own life show: they were the ones who knew everyone's name in the coffee shop, they were having a whirlwind romance and they were only accepting the best. Now, the trends have moved on, and people are NPCs. Non-playable characters, or NPCs, are taking TikTok by storm. NPCs originate in video games.
Bye-bye Twitter birdie - gone but still under trade mark
Image source: Brett Jordan from Pexels While brokering his $44bn Twitter, Inc. takeover deal in October 2022, Musk hinted at a name change by tweeting that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”. In April 2023, he took a further step when he folded Twitter, Inc. into X Corp (whose parent is X Holdings Corp). Therefore, the recent announcement of Twitter’s rebranding to X is clearly more calculated and less of a whim than people initially thought.
New York Festivals and Zerotrillion launch new content series
New York Festivals has partnered with Zerotrillion to create a new content series, Carving Stairs into Stone, moderated by Zerotrillion's NYC managing director, Chantelle Brinkley.
Dos and don'ts of copyright for advertising and marketing professionals
Copyright is not registrable In most countries, including South Africa, and unlike other forms of IP protection provided for by statute, it is not possible to register copyright (apart from films). Copyright exists automatically when a work is created, provided that the work is original and fits into a category recognised by the Copyright Act no. 98 of 1978 (“the Act”).
Important things that advertising and marketing professionals need to know about copyright
In South Africa, we don’t recognise ‘look and feel’ as the subject of copyright. It’s about originality. So when it comes to infringement, it’s not a question of “how much” is copied. It’s a question of quality; of whether or not something is identifiable. So how do we apply copyright to creative material and assess copyright infringement?
The IP laws of the metaverse and beyond
When Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Inc. announced on 28 October 2021, that the company’s corporate name will be changed to Meta Platforms, Inc. (‘Meta’), the world’s interest was piqued by his use of the term “metaverse”. What does this term really encompass and what are the implications, for intellectual property elements such as trade marks and NFTs? What is the Metaverse? The word “metaverse” – coined in 1992 by the science fiction writer Neal Stephenson – describes a 3D virtual space.
The IP laws of the metaverse and beyond
NEWS SPONSORED BY DELL E-SERIES 24" MONITORS FROM DCC: By Merlene Engelbrecht, associate and Thembokuhle Danca, candidate attorney, Spoor & Fisher When Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Inc. announced on 28 October 2021, that the company’s corporate name will be changed to Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”), the world’s interest was piqued by his use of the term “metaverse”.
Protective laws when naming and marketing products
Merlene Engelbrecht | Associate | Spoor & Fisher | mail me | “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville, American writer of the classic novel Moby Dick Mellville’s words ring true today, especially for trade mark owners who appreciate that, in the world of intellectual property, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Merlene
Contact Merlene, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack