Latest Trademark World, ECDR, EIPR

The IPKat had hoped to be saving a little pile of reading up for a pleasant session in the garden, but since his garden has been all but washed away by the summer storms he is reduced to reading the July/August 2007 issue of Informa's near-monthly Trademark World in his rather stuffy office. This issue has a very exciting cover picture of a t-shirt with the words "Frankie goes to the Registry" printed on it. It's really more a matter of "Frankie goes to Newport, Gwent", where the UK Trade Mark Registry is having lots of fun dealing with the fall-out from disputed trade mark applications by well known bands. The story is by David Brooks, who currently plays with a much-touted band called Taylor Wessing. Other features in this issue include

* "The Pharmaceutical Industry Nightmare in Brazil" by old-time IP star Denis Allan Daniel, formerly of Daniel & Cia but who has now reformed as Daniel Advogados), the nightmare in question being the Brazilian government's initiative in promoting the compulsory licensing of pharma products and boosts for the local generics industry. Apart from being a really nice man and a fine lawyer (left), Denis (right) has also managed the England football team - but never got them to play like Brazil ...;

* " 'Starr' Wars", by Clayton Utz, Sydney, IP Director Brian Elkington - a short, sharp review of the dichotomy in Australian trade mark law between marks which are "substantially identical" and those which are "deceptively similar" - the former have to be compared side-by-side, the latter by other, more arcane techniques. The law as described is so bizarre that it seems impossible for it to have originated in Australia rather than from Luxembourg.

Slinking attractively through his letter box, the IPKat's copy of the bimonthly European Copyright and Design Reports, published by Sweet & Maxwell, is full of fascinating cases. This issue includes

* Plon SA v Hugo - the Cour de Cassation ruling on whether the writing of a posthumous sequel to Victor Hugo's national treasure Les Misérables was an infringement of moral rights, on whether attempts to suppress sequels were contrary to human rights and whether the French authors' collecting society was entitled to police the moral integrity of sequels [the IPKat adds: this case has been remitted to the Cour d'appel de Paris - with luck, the litigation might run for as long as the London musical of the same name];

Left: If they were only alive today ...! Victor Hugo pondering over his controversial sequel, Harry Potter and the Notre-Dame de Paris

* Kalogiannis v Mastorakis (Greek Supreme Court): a ruling on the degree of creativity needed before a photograph becomes an original copyright-protected work in Greece;

* Finn No AS v Supersok AS (Trondheim District Court): the Norwegians get their teeth into deep-linking under marketing laws and trade mark laws.

More on Les Mis here.


The August 2007 issue of the European Intellectual Property Review, also published by Sweet & Maxwell, has come out early. This issue carries a lead Opinion by veteran Geographical Indications proponent Bernard O'Connor on how, with a little objectivity, disputes between GI-ers and trademarkers as to the best way to protect such indications can be resolved or avoided. Other features include

* an analysis by Kanchana Kariyawasam (University of Queensland, Australia) on access to biological resources and benefit-sharing, viewed from the standpoint of cooperation within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries;

* a note by Richard Arnold QC on the House of Lords' ruling on the Douglas v Hello! dispute (noted briefly here by the IPKat).