Never Too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week!

What a week, huh? Although this Kat has just realised it is still Thursday, he is nonetheless quite happy to provide you with the latest news from the Katverse.

Copyright

A Kat wondering if in a parallel universe
all Member States have successfully transposed the DSM Directive

Katfriend Miquel Pequera Poch provided us with an insight into the Spanish transposition of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (‘DSM Directive’), with special emphasis on the transposition of Articles 15 and 17.

In the meantime, our PermaKat Eleonora Rosati shared with us news of the Italian transposition of the DSM Directive, with a closer look at the provisions regarding text and data mining, online content sharing service providers, and press publishers’ right - which left her literally traumatised!

Moving up north, GuestKat Nedim Malovic brought us news of the process of transposition of the DSM Directive in Sweden, where a memorandum has recently been sent for consultation to governmental agencies, organizations, and stakeholders. Nedim provides us with an interesting comparison between the Swedish version of Article 17 and the original wording of Article 17 – far less traumatic.

Designs

GuestKat Anastasiia Kyrylenko discussed a recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’), where the CJEU recognised the protection of part of a product as an Unregistered Community Design, provided that the part is clearly identifiable when the design is made available and is also clearly visible in the product.

Patents

Katfriend Roya Ghafele found the relation between patent protection and tobacco harm reduction in an analysis provided this week, where she analysed the numbers of smokers in certain countries and the number of patent registrations.

Trade Marks

The mark ‘Alitalia’ has flown to the afterlife and Katfriend Federica Pezza used the situation to illustrate the protection of ‘historical’ trade marks, a concept recently introduced into Italian Law to protect well-known and prestigious Italian marks and protect them against foreign acquisitions.

Katfriend Jan Jacobi puts a Shakespearean twist on the discussion of the limits of registrability of patterns as trade marks, departing from the CJEU’s judgment of Birkenstock and Hästens – which famously denied protection for both patterns – and Birkenstock’s most recent attempt to register the pattern as a Benelux mark.

GuestKat Riana Harvey served us with a fresh analysis of a case recently judged by the General Court (‘GC’) involving Basmati rice, sprinkled with Brexit. Her analysis contemplates relevant aspects of GC's judgment, which include the admissibility of the appeal to the GC, considering that it was filed during the UK Withdrawal Agreement, and if an act of passing off was configured. as well as a relative ground for refusal of the trade mark under scrutiny.

Katfriend Becky Knott’s analysed a recent UK Intellectual Property Office (‘UKIPO’) decision on an opposition involving two trade marks bearing hares on their logos, in class 33 (designating notably gin in the list of goods). The decision left a bitter taste in the opponent’s mouth, as the UKIPO considered that the opponent has not provided sufficient substantiation of the use of its mark for selling gin. 

Miscellaneous

Hayleigh Bosher reviewed last week the book The Future of Intellectual Property, edited by Daniel J. Gervais, Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law at Vanderbilt University Law School, US, and shared more details (provided by the UKIPO) about their AI-powered tool for trade mark applications.

Katfriend Emily Nuttall-Wood summarised the Fashion Law London conference held on 22 October 2021 about the role of online retail marketplaces and their legal and regulatory aspects.  

The metaverse is beginning to open its doors and Katfriend Nick Kempton provided us with an insight into the concepts, intricacies, and technologies involved in the metaverse, alongside the implications it may have in IP rights.