Tuesday tiddlywinks

Say what you like about
Huawei, it has a prettier
logo than ZTE

Hooray, hooray -- a rapid response for Huawei!  On 16 July the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Case C-170/13 Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd v ZTE Corp., ZTE Deutschland GmbH. a ruling which this Kat instantly dismissed as being no big event but which, other commentators have observed, has a deeper meaning to those whose fingers are placed firmly on the pulse of  standards-essential patent licensing [see eg Colm Ahern on IP Finance here; David Long on the Essential Patent Blog, here; Markus Gampp on DLA Piper's IPT Germany Blog here].  Now the big news is that tomorrow afternoon the AIPPI UK Group has organised a special rapid response event to discuss this ruling.  Here are the details:

CJEU in Huawei v ZTE  

Registration is now open for this rapid response event this Wednesday 29 July 2015 (5.30 for 6pm start).  

AIPPI UK is delighted to welcome at very short notice two speakers, Christian Harmsen (Bird & Bird, Germany) and Jemima Stratford QC (Brick Court Chambers), who will provide a fascinating insight into the recent decision of the CJEU in Huawei v ZTE which considered the circumstances in which injunctive relief could be awarded in patent disputes involving standards essential patents (SEPs).  Christian Harmsen acted for Huawei in Germany, while Jemima Stratford QC from the UK has an intimate knowledge of the competition-related aspects of FRAND disputes. 

 Christian will provide some background to the case and how it is being perceived from a German perspective; this will be particularly insightful in view of the past Orange Book decisions of the German courts.  Jemima will focus on the competition issues which were central to the case, and will also consider the possible impact on the UK courts.  

The organisers had to resort to desperate
measures in order to deliver the drinks
on time for the Rapid Response event ...

The London office of law firm Bird & Bird has kindly agreed to host this event (15 Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1JP), and there will be drinks afterwards. Attendance is free for UK members and new applicants for membership, and £25 for non-members.  CPD 1.5hrs and BSB accredited course. To attend this event just register at http://cjeu-huawei-zte.eventbrite.co.uk  NB: At the time of registering if someone else (eg: your secretary or P.A.) registers on your behalf, please make sure that they book in your name, so that the name of the person who is attending -- and wants the CPDs –- is the name which makes it on to the attendee list. 

Better English. If you have nothing better to read this summer, why not dip into Better English, a most unusual book written by a most unusual author, octogenarian word-lover Harold Lewin.  As Harold explains:

The book Better English should be of interest to wordsmiths, those of us who would like to stretch our vocabulary, and also the creative writing enthusiasts. The contents embrace a whole galaxy of unusual words, including archaic, argot, cant, inkhorn, jargon, literary, loanwords, neologisms, nonce, patois, recherché, scientific/technical and slang. There are many singular words herein, singular in the sense of being strange, unusual, eccentric, or simply difficult. There is something here for everyone, from new readers to sophisticated word connoisseurs and crossword or word game aficionados.

This Kat, who has given the author some gentle guidance on copyright issues, warmly welcomes it, with the proviso that much of its content consists of words that he speedily edits out of articles, case notes, guest blogposts and the like, for fear that readers will not understand them. You can find it here.

Around the weblogs. If you're feeling cosmopolitan, or just like showing off that you can read French, here's Laure Marino's Le Blog de Laure Marino -- Droit IP/IT.  Looks like fun, say the Kats. Laure is a denizen of CEIPI, which is as good a pedigree as an IP blogger can hope for.  The 1709 Blog reports a sad tale of the copyright dispute over the unlicensed use of a portrait photograph of murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby on the UK Ministry of Defence's Roll of Honour. Scarcely less sad is the scrap over the annotated statute laws of the State of Georgia, recorded by Andy Johnstone on the same weblog.  Finally, here's a second mention of Colm Ahern in today's tiddlywinks: he guested this neat piece on PatLit which broke the news that the Spanish Supreme Court has decided that a patent's inventive step is not after all a question of fact but is instead a question of law.

UK government repeals its repeal. Many a sad student and frustrated practitioner has stared miserably at Section 52 of the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA), wondering first "what does it mean?" and secondly "why, oh why?"  The first bits of it read like this:

 52 Effect of exploitation of design derived from artistic work. 

(1) This section applies where an artistic work has been exploited, by or with the licence of the copyright owner, by— (a) making by an industrial process articles falling to be treated for the purposes of this Part as copies of the work, and (b) marketing such articles, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.   

(2) After the end of the period of 25 years from the end of the calendar year in which such articles are first marketed, the work may be copied by making articles of any description, or doing anything for the purpose of making articles of any description, and anything may be done in relation to articles so made, without infringing copyright in the work.

There was much rejoicing in design circles when the UK government announced that it was to repeal this provision, but it now seems that the government has repealed its repeal. According to official sources:

In March 2015 the Government implemented a Commencement Order (Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (Commencement No.8 and Saving Provisions) Order 2015) which would implement the repeal of section 52 of the CDPA on 6 April 2020. Following the introduction of this Order, the Government received a claim for judicial review challenging its compatibility with EU law. Having considered the matter carefully, the Government has revoked the Commencement Order and will not continue with the current transitional arrangements. The revocation order can be viewed on the legislation.gov.uk website. The Government will launch a fresh consultation on revised transitional arrangements, including the date for implementing the repeal. A further announcement will be made when the new consultation is published.

Merpel is excited to find out whether the government will decide that the March 2015 Order was okay after all and then repeal the repeal of its repeal ...