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

If things are finally looking up after a very busy week (and hopefully, a May Day long weekend), here's the summary of what you missed.

Trade Marks

Things are looking up! Image from Pixabay.

Alessandro Cerri discussed the recent decision (T-157/23) which found that a trade mark's reputation is acquired progressively, and lost gradually, such that evidence from some time before or after the date of assessment can still be of relevance. The owners of famous or iconic marks who may have experienced, due to market conditions outside of their control, a downturn in sales might still have a reputation even if it has not been in use for a couple of years.

Marcel Pemsel considered the recent General Court judgment on the refusal to register the trade mark 'Pablo Escobar' (T-255/23). The EU Intellectual Property Network recently published CP14 Common Practice on the prohibition of trade marks that are contrary to public policy or accepted principles of morality. In the 'Pablo Escobar' case, the Court accepted that the Spanish public knows Pablo Escobar (1949-1993), who was presumed to have been a drug lord and narco-terrorist. The case confirms that the overriding principle is the public’s perception, based on the standard of a reasonable person with average sensitivity and tolerance thresholds.

EUIPO BoA IP Case Law Conference

Several members of the IPKat team and Katfriends were in Alicante, Spain, last week to report on the 5th edition of the biennial EUIPO Boards of Appeal's Intellectual Property Case Law Conference (IPCLC). This year's IPCLC coincided with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the EUIPO. You can catch up on the summaries of the sessions below:

• Session 1 – "An Odyssey Through the Evolving Landscape of Trade Mark General Court Judgments" by Eleonora Rosati 
• Session 2 – "A Deep-Dive into latest Design Case-law and Developments: Multi-layered Perspectives" by Katfriend Michela Galea (Stockholm University)
• Session 3 – "Reconciling the Old with the New: Challenges of Trade Mark Modernization" by Katfriend Mindia Davitadze (Stockholm University)
• Session 4 – "IP Code-Breaking in the Era of AI Advancements" by Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo
• Session 5 – "Copyright in flux: What does the future have in store?" by Antonios Baris
• Session 6 – "Crafting the Future: New perspectives for Geographical Indications" by Jocelyn Bosse
• Session 7 – "Quality through Coherence and Consistency: Reflections and Visions" by Anastasiia Kyrylenko

Patents

UPCKats Agathe Michel-de Cazotte, Hiske Roos and Laura Mikkelsen and members from the team at Carpmaels reported on the case Edwards Lifesciences v Meril GmbH and Meril Life Sciences, focusing on the issue of costs. In this case, the Court found that Meril caused Edwards Lifesciences unnecessary costs and that it would be equitable to order Meril to pay all the costs, irrespective of the prospects of success of the application for provisional measures.