Around the IP Blogs

This Kat has been surfing about the IP blogosphere and has returned with some very interesting articles for your digestion and rumination!

Snooping for some perspectives on copyright, The 1709 Blog reported on US litigation about pre-1972 (year in which recordings started to be subject to federal copyright) copyright issues of the 60s band “The Turtles”. In The CopyKat. Friday the 13th without Jason Voorhees, sounds like a nightmare!, the actions of the association Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment and the deal with YouTube of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in this specific field of copyright law are also discussed.

In Canadian news, after years of consistent Supreme Court decisions about fair dealing in schools and universities, Federal Court Judge Hands Access Copyright Fair Dealing Victory: Micheal Geist reports on the reasoning of the court and the repercussions of the judgement.

On to trade marks, in Mexico the Tequila dispute is burning up! Are you Desperados for Tequila? The famous beer brand Desperados, which uses the appellation of origin “Tequila”, might be facing litigation as the tequila industry frowns upon the situation and, more importantly, Tequila has been granted a Certification Mark in the US. Florelia Vallejo Trujillo of IP tango reports on the news.

Maybe I could take the bike out today...
nah, window watching it is

Up for a bike ride in Christiania, Copenhagen? Well you will find yourself in the midst of an in-fight between CHRISTIANIA BIKES and CHRISTIANIA CYKLER (which happens to be the Danish translation of the former). For the Kluwer Trademark Blog, Lasse Søndergaard Christensen and Louise Thorning Ahle.

In The link between passing-off and provenance, Darren Margo and Natalie Hill of Afro-IP, talk about the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment Herbal Zone v Infitech Technologies. The South African judgement “covers that situation where an ex distributor turns competitor, and what is then required to stop that business selling products bearing the same name. It is also a reminder on the importance of registering a trade mark”.

Turning to designs and patents accordingly, BMW AG v Acacia Srl reported by MARQUES, involved the latter company manufacturing and selling on-line replicas of BMW and other car brands' wheels. Acacia sought the Italian Courts for a declaration of non-infringement. The case centered on whether the Italian Court have jurisdiction and, ultimately, the CJEU confirms lex specialis status of jurisdiction under the Design Regulation.

The second case, Intermarine v. CMC Marine, dealt with the request for the declaration of invalidity of an utility model by Intermarine. CMC counter argued that not only the model was valid but that could even be converted into a patent. The Court of Appeal of Turin (Italy) sided with Intermarine as explained by Luca Giove in EPLAW.

Anthony McCain of PatentlyO proposes some Bits and Bytes to nibble on as wells as The Copycat of The1709 Blog!

And lastly, the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice proposes an interesting editorial on Control of Content in Social Media where the author Gill Grassie asks whether  the legislator could in this context learn something from the IP enforcement experience.

Image credits: Cecilia Sbrolli