Around the IP Blogs!

This kitten is delighted to bring you the highlights of some IP blogs!

Carefully selecting some IP blogs!

Marie-Andree Weiss of The 1709 Blog discusses the Paramount Pictures Corp. v. Axanar Productions, Inc. case (2:15-cv-09938-RGK-E), brought before the Central District of California, which involved the unauthorized production of a 21-minutes film entitled Prelude to Axanar and planning the production of a full-length movie (Axanar), both crowdfunded by Star Trek fans. 

Hirotaka Nonaka of TrustinIP considers the first criminal case in Japan involving book scanning services. The High Court found that such services, comprising the cut and scanning of books per client’s request, amount to copyright infringement.

Moving to designs, Paul Tjiam and Hidde Koenraad recaps on MARQUES Class99 the decision issued by the District Court of the Hague in the consolidated cases Samsung Electronics Co Ltd v Maxperian NL BV and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd v Digital Revolution BV [ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2016:14383, para 4.74], which held that toner cartridges can be protected under Community Design rights because they are not component parts of a complex product.

Moving to trademarks, MARQUES Class 46 announces the publication by Sweet & Maxwell of the first European Trade Mark Reports (ETMR) of 2017. The January 2017 issue includes reports of recent decisions from IP offices, national and EU courts. 

Staying with trademarks but moving to Latin America, José Luis Alvarez details on IP tango the opposition system in Mexico, which in the opinion of this kitten merely provides certain regulations (by establishing a deadline and fee) regarding the Mexican practice that was known as “third party observations” (see IPKat post related here). 

Moving to patents, Patricia Covarrubia reports on IP tango about Resolution No. 175/2016, issued by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) of Brazil, which makes permanent the “Green Patent” program, giving priority to the examination of inventions related to eco-friendly technologies. Also, IP tango covers the meeting of the PROSUR Directorship Committee, which addressed the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program as well as the plans for 2017 and the extension of funding by the Inter-American Development Bank. 

Over at PATENTLYO, Dennis Crouch blogs about the non-precedential decision In re Chudik, issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which involved whether a functional limitation contained in a claim can be found in the prior art. 

Staying with patents, as IPKat member Neil Wilkof discusses on IP Finance the challenges faced by the world’s largest generic drug company, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (based in Israel), but whose most successful product in recent years has been the proprietary drug COPAXONE. 

Finally, Stéphanie Faber recaps on GLOBAL IP & PRIVACY LAW BLOG the changes to the Consumer Protection and Tourism Codes, introduced by the French Digital Republic Bill, regarding how the information must be provided by online platforms, social networks, forums and chatrooms.