IPKAT RIDDLE NO. 4

While at the MARQUES conference, the IPKat attended a session on digital rights management (DRM). Although the session contained a detailed and considered analysis of the law in this area, the focus was primarily on how the laws in the EU preventing the circumvention of DRM measures can be used to protection copyright-type works, rather than for the protection of trade marks. Kirsi Ekström, (TeliaSonera OY, Finland) suggested that it could be used to prevent the sharing of downloadable mobile phone logos that also happen to be trade marks. However, the IPKat suspects that DRM will be of limited application to trade marks because mark-holders wish their marks to be exposed to the public for advertising purposes and so have little interest in “locking” them up through DRM. In any event, many marks, unlike complex copyright-type works, are easy to copy and so it may not be worth an infringer’s while to circumvent DRM measures.

Once again, the IPKat offers a small prize to anyone who can tell him (by e-mail, or in the comment box below) how DRM can be used to protect trade marks.