Around the IP blogs

MARQUES Class 46 (trade marks)

* Spreading the word: EUIPO reaches out to OAPI

See the information below received by MARQUES, which “will probably not affect the immediate workload of our practitioner readers, but it does relate to the general betterment of the intellectual property environment on a global basis for years to come” – it relates to the highly successful TMview online search and availability service and it reads like this:

OAPI TMview development visit at EUIPO 

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Under the framework of the International Cooperation Service, a delegation of IT experts of the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) visited the EUIPO from 13 to 24 February 2017. This visit aimed at planning its integration into TMview in the coming months. TMclass was already implemented and went live on 15 January 2015.

*April ETMR now published

The April 2017 issue of the European Trade Mark Reports (ETMR) has now been published.

To remind readers, the ETMR is a series of law reports published monthly by Sweet & Maxwell. It contains English-language reports, together with informative headnotes, of recent decisions from national and EU courts and intellectual property offices. 

The April issue contains three cases. Two are High Court rulings from England and Wales. One of these was an application by Jaguar Land Rover for summary judgment in an infringement action relating to the DEFENDER trade mark, in which alleged infringer unsuccessfully sought partial revocation on the basis of bad faith. The second was a passing off and trade mark action involving the once inauspicious word "Titanic".

The third case, from the Fifth Chamber of the General Court, has a familiar taste to it, being yet another stage in the battle over the Kit-Kat four-finger chocolate bar shape mark.

The 1709 Blog

R.I.P. Conceptual Separability Test

“The US Supreme Court held on March 22, 2017 that a feature incorporated into the design of a useful article is eligible for copyright protection “if, when identified and imagined apart from the useful article, it would qualify as a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work either on its own or when fixed in some other tangible medium.” The case is Star Athletica LLC v .Varsity Brands. Justice Thomas wrote the opinion of the Supreme Court.” -- See Marie-Andree Weiss’s case review here. 

KluwerIPLaw

Minister De Guindos says Spain will not join Unitary Patent system

Spain will not join the Unitary Patent system. That became clear during a session of the Spanish parliament (on March 22, 2017). Earlier this month, the parliamentary committee for economics, industry and competitiveness had approved a motion of the socialist party PSOE, requesting the government to reconsider joining the system. Only the Popular Party, which runs the minority government in Spain, voted against the motion. See the full report here. 

Photo courtesy of Guo Si-te.