Around the IP Blogs

* Marques class 46

A new book is introduced: The History of Marks from Antiquity to the Middle Ages written by Salvatore Di Palma, an international expert who had been working at WIPO for 35 years. If you are looking for a riveting read over the holiday period, or simply seeking a pretty present for a loved one, this book might be just what you need. Further details of the book and purchase information can be found on the publisher's website here.

Former guest Kat Laetitia Lagarde brings a report on joined cases T-359 and T-358/15 issued in September, in which the EU General Court dismissed the appeals in the opposition -- "Romeo has a gun, by Romano Ricci" loses against Nina Ricci.

and

Ever-productive Laetitia Lagarde discusses two other cases (T‑578/15 and T‑614/15) in which the marks that merely representing solar panels got struck out by court.

* The 1709 blog

After the first application of the CJEU’s GS Media decision in a Swedish court (see IPKat's report here), Mirko Brüß (Rasch) discusses its first application by the German courts.

Is the songwriters’ right to call for a reversion of copyright after 35 years inalienable or not? Can parties’ contractual agreement override it? David Liao wrote a summary of the Duran Duran copyright battle, in which the two questions had been answered “surprisingly”. See also IPKat David Brophy’s relatively lengthy yet quite "vivid" analysis for the battle here with a flavor of fiction dialogue on top of it.

Jersey Boys (the creators of hit musical “Jersey Boys”) have been held by a jury in Nevada to have infringed copyright in an unpublished book. There seems to be eleven similarities identified between the manuscript and the musical, which (may) include the dialogue surrounding songs, the characterisation of individuals, and the description of scenes. By now, a spokesman for the show has claimed that Jersey Boys plans to appeal, stay tuned.

Ben discusses the progress of the copyright case “Getty Images vs Carol Highsmith” (his former post can be found here): Highsmith’s claims (of statutory damages) were recently dismissed in a New York District Court, along with other claims that Getty and LCS had charged licensing fees and collected settlements from purported infringers for images they had no right to represent.

Other than cases, an academic symposium organized by The Institute for Information Law (IViR) of the University of Amsterdam is reported: in view of the new EU copyright reform package, the symposium will examine the issues surrounding intermediary liability in copyright in Europe, including the extent of duties and remedies which are appropriate to impose on intermediaries and the conditions to govern these. Moving beyond the current safe harbour regime, it will explore avenues towards the adoption of a substantive European system. 

* IP Tango

What has happened in Latin America? On IP Tango, IPKat’s friend Patricia Covarrubia blogged on the new-released Latin American Index of Legislative Transparency, which “aims to systematise and analyse relevant information about the Legislative Powers”. Further, she discussed the question “Is the Index relevant to IP and if so how?”

I heard Christmas Stocking...
Keywords alert!

For the Christmas stockings, Patricia Covarrubia suggests you a quite readable new book written by Marta Iljadica, the Copyright Beyond Law -- Regulating Creativity in the Graffiti Subculture. Apparently Patricia had some quality time reading the book: 

“Copyright law and the subculture of graffiti are so well interwoven in the book that you forget you are reading a book about law. I noticed this because essentially I do not to take work home and suddenly the book was in my night table and I was engaging on it as it were a novel.” PS. Blog readers can claim a 20% discount on the book - the discount code is CV7.

Kat photo courtesy of Ms. Ana Barbara Ribeiro Ramalho.