Around the IP blogs

Are you wondering about the IP topics of the week? A.I. and much more in this round of Around the IP blogs!

Copyright

The Kluwer Copyright Blog reports on the decision of the Vienna Higher Regional State Court in case Puls 4 v YouTube, which found that a platform operator is not (as of yet) obliged to monitor the information it transmits or stores or to investigate circumstances which point to unlawful activity. Consequently there was no evidence to suggest that the user who illegitimately uploaded the infringing videos had already violated the plaintiff’s copyrights, nor that YouTube knew about it. Still on the Kluwer Copyright Blog, there is a good discussion of the impact of automated copyright enforcement mechanisms on cultural diversity.

Trade marks

The IPWatchdog discusses the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) decisions to declare invalid the UK trade mark registration for the shape of the company’s popular Babybel cheese, as the trade mark did not meet Sieckmann and Libertel's requirements. 

Patents

The IPWatchdog analyses the European Patent Office's new guidance for examination for AI and ML patent applications (issued in November 2018) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's revised guidance directed to what constitutes patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101 (issued in January 2019) and considers how these guidance will shape the examination of Artificial Intelligence Inventions.

Patently-O reports on President Trump's “memorandum on combating trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods” and discusses the level of authority given to the USPTO as the government’s expert patent law agency. It writes about Romag 's petition to the Supreme Court in Romag v Fossil "Whether, under section 35 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a), wilful infringement is a prerequisite for an award of an infringer’s profits for a violation of section 43(a), id. § 1125(a)."