Never Too Late: if you missed the IPKat last week!

The 185^th edition of Never Too Late is here with everything that happened on IPKat last week. The highlight of the week was IPKat's exclusive interview with the CEO of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. There were also philosophical musings on the relevance of literary criticism to patent interpretation, reports on trade mark cases in Italy and Singapore and a copyright book review. 

Interview with the CEO of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office

IPKat was recently honored to conduct an exclusive interview with Johanne Bélisle, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, published on IPKat in its entirety: Exclusive interview with Johanne Bélisle, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The interview covered topics including the aims and focus of CIPO's Five-Year Business Strategy, the role of CIPO in facilitating innovation in Canada and the main elements of "brand Canada" (more than just hockey, maple syrup and sphynx cats).

Canadian Kat

Patents

GuestKat Frantzeska considers the EPO report on "Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution”: Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. What indications for the future on the basis of patent activity? The Fourth Industrial Revolution (FiR) refers to information and communication technologies (ICT) applied to the individual, home, vehicles, enterprise and infrastructure, for example smart health technologies. Frantzeska provides an overview of the statistics presented in the report and reflects on how the FiR may affect the patent industry. 

Following on from AmeriKat's recent post regarding the Darts-IP report on patent trolling in Europe by non-practicing entities (NPEs), IPKat hosts a Guest Post by Igor Nikolic of University College London (UCL), who provides his key take away messages from the report and reminds us that the situation may be more nuanced than it first appears. Join the debate!: GuestPost: Is there really a problem with NPE litigation in Europe?

Kat friend Dr. Aloys Hüttermann explores the parallels between patents and literature: Do patents and literature have something in common? In a discussion that has interesting relevance to the hot potato issue of claim interpretation, Aloys contrasts the "romantic" author-centered tradition of the US and the text-based tradition of Europe and elsewhere. Following Actavis vs Eli Lilly, is the UK becoming more author-centric? Philosophical minded patent attorneys may be intrigued by a suggestion in the comments for a Derridean deconstruction of patents. This Kat feels many patent attorneys might instead favour the Analytical approach of early Wittgenstein.

Postmodernist philosophy Kat

Xi’an IP Tribunal

GuestKat Tian reports the official opening of the the Xi’an IP Tribunal in China and considers its implications for the Chinese IP protection landscape and the expected increase in IP disputes: The 1st specialized IP Tribunal of Northwest China unveiled in Xi'an. 

Xi'an

Trade marks

Kat Elenora discusses an Italian trade mark case (sentenza 830/2018) relating to cookies and cushions: Sweet! (or not?): cookie-shaped cushions without trade mark owner's permission. The case was brought by Barilla against a manufacturer of cushions shaped like Barilla cookies and labelled with words identical or similar to the names of Barilla products. 

GuestKat Nedim considers the implications of the change provided by the 2015 reform of the representation requirements for an EU mark, as recently considered by the Second Board of Appeal of the EUIPO in Case R200/2017-2: Sieckmann kicks in once again: when is a representation of a sign an acceptable representation for the sake of registration?

Katfriend Melvin Pang of Amica Law in Singapore reports on the efforts before the Singapore Intellectual Property Office of luxury brand Gucci to demonstrate GUCCI as a well-known mark: GUCCI as a well-known mark, with special attention to evidence, surveys, and unfair advantage.

Book review

IPKat's Book Review Editor Hayleigh Bosher provides a review of Copyright User Rights, Contracts and The Erosion of Property: Book Review: Copyright User Rights, Contracts and The Erosion of Property. The book focuses on the rights of copyright users and particularly consider questions such as do copyright users have rights and what place should copyright users have in copyright law? 

Author: Rose Hughes

PREVIOUSLY ON NEVER TOO LATE

Never Too Late 184 [week ending 18 February] BREAKING: UK IPO launches technical consultation on draft regulations transposing the EU Trade Secrets Directive | Here we go again? Strong brands as a barrier to entry, this time from "The Economist" | UK IPO publishes consultation on implementing Trade Mark Directive 2015 into UK law | Top 10 issues from submissions before UK Supreme Court in Warner-Lambert v Actavis second medical use battle | EPO looking for new legally qualified members of the Boards of Appeal|Repair or reconstruction: Where do you draw the line for exhaustion under patent law? | L'Oreal v RN Ventures - The Registered Design Perspective | More than Just a Game: Music, video games, GDPR & technical protective measures” (Report 2 and Report 3) | German FCJ: doctors can have their profile deleted from rating site - but can they?

Never Too Late 183 [week ending 18 February] Mr Justice Carr's L'Oreal v RN Ventures decision bristles with warnings on Actavis v Lilly claim interpretation, equivalents and prosecution history (Parts I and II) | Can Wenzhou and cigarette lighters tell us something about why there are IP rights? | Surveying the scene - passing off & surveys | Copying the counterfeits | 2017 Canadian trademark cases: progressive and regressive | Linking under US copyright law: green light to its inclusion in the scope of public display right comes from New York | Isgrò and Waters, problem erased | Stockholm Administrative Court orders ISP to provide customers’ details to Swedish police | (No) privacy by default? German court finds Facebook in breach of data protection law | More than Just a Game (Report 1): eSports | Blockchain my IP | Strategies for Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy (The USA and The EU Perspectives) | AIPPI UK Upcoming Event: Professor Bently to debate how far the "zone of exclusivity" of registered IP rights goes

Never Too Late 182 [week ending 11 February]  BREAKING: in his new Opinion in Louboutin AG Szpunar (confirms and) advises CJEU to rule that a trade mark combining colour and shape may be refused or declared invalid |  The new AG Opinion in Louboutin: is it really bad news for the famous red sole? | Yet another horse – The Polo/Lauren Company L.P. v Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club Ltd. | When passing off is enough to successfully oppose a trade mark |  BREAKING: Sky's the limit for CJEU references in Sky v SkyKick trade mark battle |  Influencers and undisclosed sponsored activities: where do we stand? |  Brand Finance 500 … What’s the value of music IP? |  The Céline affair: what moral rights can and can’t do…even in France |  Can Nativity scene characters attract copyright protection under Italian law? | Blackcurrant, public interest and the first ever compulsory licensing application at the Community Plant Variety Office? |  Costs of intermediary injunctions: Sir Richard Arnold's review of a recent publication | Alternative ways for financing and incentivizing research: a Nobel laureate and his colleagues state their case |  Event Report: IP inclusive - Inappropriate Behaviour

Never Too Late 181 [week ending 4 February] Book review: ‘Copyright and Information Privacy: Conflicting Rights in Balance’ | A legislative initiative that merits attention: Mandatory mediation in Greece in trademark, patent and industrial designs infringement disputes | Austria refers Facebook ‘Hate-Speech’ case to the CJEU | Protection of traditional knowledge and cultural expressions: the case of 'Maasai IP' | A spectrum of specificity - Article 3(a) of SPC Regulation | Can ‘public morals’ prevent the use of religious symbols and motifs in advertising? No, says the European Court of Human Rights | BMG v Cox - when does an ISP lose its safe harbour protection? | Embrace my beloved frog, as a guardian.