DAVID AND GOLIATH

Sam Barron has brought two David-and-Goliath IP stories to the IPKat’s attention:

* This is London reports that the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, is preparing to do battle with the Registry Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that lists County Court debt judgments. Lord Falconer wants to put the central register of court judgments out to tender. However, the trust is objecting, saying it has created intellectual property rights in the register. The IPKat sees a potential database rights case developing here, although it’s not clear whether the data would need to be abstracted from the trust’s database or if it could be obtained independently from court records.

* The BBC reports that the workers at Boddington’s Manchester brewery are trying to stop their brewery from being closed down by applying to have the Boddington’s name registered as a geographical indication. They’re pointing in particular to the fact that the beer has been advertised under the slogan “the cream of Manchester”. Said the union representative:

"When this came up two years ago, we were told that only the brand owners can apply. Now it seems that may not be the case with champagne being cited as a good precedent. Only some brands produced in the Champagne region of France can legitimately call themselves as such, but the special protection is based on geography and not brand ownership."

The IPKat isn’t sure how good a fit the Champagne precedent is in this case. In the Champagne case, the situation is analogous to lots of brand-owners getting together, rather than the workers seeking to get the designation protected. Also, there’d be an awful lot of geographical indications if merely advertising something in connection with the place it is manufactured makes a product eligible as a GI.

David and Goliath here, here and here