Tuesday Miscellany

Rock on

1. Music promoter Tony Green was prevented from naming his bar Draft Punk, after Brewdog sent a cease and desist notice, the Guardian reports. Brewdog registered the marks “PUNK” in class 32: Beer, lager in 2007 and “PUNK DOG” Class 32: Beer, ale, lager, alcoholic beers, alcohol free beers, alcohol free beverages, bottled water, ginger beer, soft drinks in 2007. Although Green planned to name a pub, not a beer, Brewdog’s were “concerned that provision of food and drink services under the mark Draft Punk would give rise to a likelihood of confusion in the marketplace, including a likelihood of association with our client’s earlier mark Punk.” Subsequently Green abandoned the idea altogether… 

2. In other news, on 4 Friday 21 April, Richard Taylor (DLA Piper UK LLP) presented "Copyright or Wrong"  on BBC Radio exploring the history, significance and nature of copyright law across the arts and sciences, and asking whether the law is in need of reform.  Richard's interviewees include High Court Judge Colin Birss, Eleanor Rosati of the world-leading IPKat blog, Ted Shapiro of the Motion Picture Association, MEP for the Pirate Party Julia Reda, Professor Estelle Derclaye, and forensic musicologist Peter Oxendale, with pop-ups from Terry Gilliam and George Harrison.  This is a fascinating study of a topic which, whether we know it or not, affects each of us every day. You can listen again here.

3. Recently published title: 'An Introduction to CompetitionLaw - 2nd Edition' by Piet-Jan Slot and Martin Farley. The Blurb informs us that “this book is intended to serve as a first acquaintance with competition law.  It aims to reach a broad range of readers: students, teachers in further and higher education, officials and practising lawyers who are not usually faced with competition law issues in their working lives.”

4. Call for Abstracts: New IP Lawyers [a network of young practitioners and academics in Intellectual Property Law] invites submissions from IP PhDs and early career researchers for their 2^nd Workshop series: New Technologies and Challenges to the Existing Intellectual Property System. The workshop takes place on 14 September 2017 at Bocconi University in Milan. Full details here.

5. Clear your schedules for there are an abundance of coming IP events. See our forthcoming events page for a full list!

The CLA will be holding an evening meeting on Tuesday 25 April at Bristows LLP, 100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DH. Registration at 6pm, followed by lecture at 6:15pm. Steve Rowan (UK IPO) will speak on “Trademarks and Designs - where next when the UK leaves the EU?”

The WIPO Roving Seminar on IP 4 Global Business The Protection and Commercial use of Inventions, Trademarks and Designs takes place in Utrecht, Netherlands on 2^nd May 2017.

Dr Eleonora Rosati will be speaking about “Latest Developments in copyright” at IPSoc’s next educational event held on Wednesday 10 May 2017 from 18:30 to 21:30 (BST) at Simmons & Simmons 1 Ropemaker Street EC2Y 9SS London United Kingdom. [IPSoc is a society for junior IP practitioners.]

The European Copyright Society (ECS) Conference: Building a EU unitary copyright takes place on Friday 12^th May at SciencesPo, Auditorium Caquot, 28 rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 in Paris.

On 12th June 2017 the GRUR meets Brussels Workshop 2017 focuses on The Digital Single Market Copyright Directive Proposal and beyond: Towards a ‘toolbox’ for future European Copyright Law and takes place in Rue Montoyer 47, B-1000 Brussels.

CREATe IP Summer Summit 2017 takes place from 26^th to 30^th June at the University of Glasgow, jointly organized with the National Law University Delhi, India. This year’s theme is ‘Open Science and Open Culture’ with a special focus on development in the Global South.

Photo credit: Jason Kasper