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Week ending 5 May

Copyright

Ieva Giedrimaite posts Hellwig and VMware go in peace (for now). Chijioke Okorie writes For archives only: crafting copyright limitations and exceptions for archives in South Africa. Eleonora Rosati discusses the Opinion of AG Szpunar advising the CJEU to rule that copyright protection in designs simply arises when they are original.

Trade marks

Hayleigh Bosher discusses the trade marks adventure of Zara. Nedim Malovic takes a look to a recent decision of the Regional Court of Frankfurt in Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Not when it comes to BMW trade marks, says Frankfurt Regional Court. Nedim also discusses “AGING BACKWARDS” for fitness-related goods and services? Insufficiently distinctive, says EUIPO Fourth Board of Appeal. John Shaw looks at how LEGO has recently implemented long term brand protection strategy in the UK. 

Patents

Tian Lu reports on Chinese SPC IP Tribunal closing its first case. Rose Hughes discusses the issue of priority right transfer (T 0725/14).

IPR Carousel

Eleonora remembers that the IT Law Summer School returns to Cambridge with an IPKat discount.
Katfriend Andrés Ruiz de Zárate reports on the latest SCCR (session 38), which took place in Geneva a few weeks ago.
Hayleigh Bosher reviews European Fashion Law, a Practical Guide From Start-up to Global Success, crafted by non-other than fellow Kat Rosie Burbidge.

Annsley Merelle Ward writes about Fordham 27 (Report 10): Patent Potpourri, (Report 11): Views from judicial decision makers, (Report 12): SPCs, (Report 13): PTAB, Fordham 27 (Report 14): Priority. Ieva Giedrimaite posts The end of code – long live data and Rosie Burbidge writes A slippery design can't slide away from invalidation at EUIPO.
Cecilia Sbrolli reviews Competition Law and Intellectual Property in China.

Week ending 28 April

Copyright

GuestKat Mathilde Pavis reports IP plays a role in decolonising cultural heritage: over 100 experts warn France.
Eleonora Rosati reports on the German Federal Court of Justice referring new case on communication to the public.

Patents

Rose Hughes posts BREAKING: Unwired Planet v Huawei Part III: Huawei is given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Peter Ling reports on the Swiss Supreme Court's decision confirming a Preliminary Injunction in Kivexa case.

Trade marks

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo in a two-part post takes a look to Non-traditional trademarks and other amendments to the Mexican IP Law (First Part - Second Part). Verónica also discusses The first non-traditional trademark registrations granted in Mexico. Tian Lu reports that China amends trade mark and unfair competition law to tackle trade mark squatting and enforcement issues.

IPR Carousel 

Annsley Merelle Ward writes about the Fordham IP Conference. Charlotte Gerrish takes a look at a decision of the French Supreme Court revisiting the concept of informed user.
Africa Correspondent Chijioke Okorie posts on IP and the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2019 (Nigeria) .
Katfriend Constance Leong provides an update on the state of Singapore's FinTech Fast Track initiative.
Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo announces the IPKat page on LinkedIn. Hayleigh Bosher reports on the IPAN World IP Day Celebrations event. As WIPO’s theme this year is Reach for Gold: IP and Sports, Katfriend Andrea Rossi thought of some examples that show the level of protection that IP provides in the sports sector. Annsley Merelle Ward writes on Fordham 27 (Report 1): Key Current IP Issues: Reflections & Analysis, (Report 2): IP - Past, Present & Future, (Report 3): DMCA - 20 years later, (Report 4): Government Leaders’ Perspectives on IP, (Report 5): In-house Counsel Panel, (Report 6): FRAND, (Report 7): AI, (Report 8): Second Medical Use/Plausibility, (Report 9): Biologics and Biosimilars

Week ending 21 April

Copyright
Eleonora Rosati writes about the Council also voting in favour of the latest version of the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. Still Eleonora discusses article 17 obligations of the DSM directive.

Trade marks

Eleonora Rosati posts Retromark Volume V: the last six months in trade mark.

Patent

Peter Ling writes Where is Haar and how did it get there? Observations on Geography while Waiting for G2/19 .

IPR Carousel

Dominic Hoar reports on AIPPI Event Report: Actavis v ICOS Supreme Court Rapid Response.
Annsley Merelle Ward writes about the unexpected passing of IP lawyer, Global Chair of Baker McKenzie, husband, father and friend - Paul Rawlinson.

Week ending 14 April

Patents

Rose Hughes reports on the IP5 offices conducting a pilot of combined search and examination during the international phase. Still Rose reports on the EPO President's Referral to the EBA.

Copyright

Kat friend Francesca Mazzi discusses the implications AI-generated make-up for copyright law.
Eleonora Rosati writes about the DSM Directive discussing How far does Article 14 go?
Cecilia Sbrolli re-imagines the decision in the case Fuller v. Bemis.

Trade marks

Antonella Gentile takes a look to the AG Kokott's Opinion in case C-104/18.
Nedim Malovic reports on the decision of the EUIPO Board of Appeal finding guitar headstock not distinctive for guitars.
Tian Lu writes about a USPTO's decision finding two male torso-shaped perfume bottles confusingly similar

IPR Carousel

Kat friend Fredy Sánchez Merino provides a summary of IP developments in Latin America.
Katfriend Léon Dijkman reports on the conference 'Injunctions and flexibility in patent law' while Ayomide Sanwo reports on Retromark – the conference. Cecilia Sbrolli reviews Accords de technologie / Technology Transactions. Anne Rose (here) and Andrea Rossi (here) provide a report of More Than Just a Game.

Week ending 7 April

Copyright

Kat Eleonora Rosati writes about the DSM Directive discussing Is the press publishers' right waivable? Ieva Giedrimaite reports that Oracle files an opposition in its final (?) duel with Google.
Africa Correspondent Chijioke Okorie discusses the Access to Copyright Protected Works by Persons with Disabilities.

Patents

Rose Hughes writes about the President of the EPO to refer the patentability of plants produced by essentially biological processes to the EBA.

Trade marks

GuestKat Mathilde Pavis reports on HBO failing in attempt to protect Game of Thrones trade marks. Nedim Malovic wonders: Do tapirs look like pigs? ‘Peppa Pig’ EUTM wins invalidity battle before EU General Court.
GuestKat Alex Woolgar reports on a decision concerning the law on trade mark exhaustion in That was exhausting: sale of individual bracelet link infringes trade mark. Still Alex writes about Gleissner trade mark application and bad faith.

IPR Carousel
Mathilde Pavis reviews Who Owns the News? A History of Copyright.
Franziska Kurz, Hanno Magnus and David Berger report on the conference Should we say "no" to automatic injunctions and "yes" to proportionate remedies?
Former PermaKat Nicola Searle discusses "the symbolism of IP".

Week ending 31 March

Copyright

Kat Eleonora Rosati discusses an Italian Supreme Court confirming approach to damage determination in image rights cases. Still Eleonora reports on the adoption of the DSM directive by the European Parliament. Katfriend Léon Dijkman reports on a recent Dutch decision dealing with the problem of protection of a copy of a painting in the public domain .

GuestKat Ieva Giedrimaite posts No Allies for Oracle’s Win Against Google. Asia Correspondent Tian Lu reports on the The 10 Highlights of copyright in China 2018.

Hayleigh Bosher reports on Warner Music signing distribution deal with AI generated music app Endel.
Eleonora writes about the DSM Directive discussing Do Member States have to transpose the value gap provision and does the YouTube referral matter?
Alex Woolgar posts No interim injunction for copyright infringement => not a Happy Camper.

Patents

Rose Hughes reports on the Supreme Court's decision that confirm no hard line on inventive step test in finding Cialis dosage patent obvious. Annsley Merelle Ward writes Mr Justice Carr grants TQ Delta injunction after finding ZyXEL "holding out" in latest SEP battle.

IPR carousel

Katfriend Jessica Banks provides perspective on the potential legal challenges to privacy posed by the increasing use of smart watches, especially with respect to children.
Katfriend Lee Curtis reports on the conference “Artificial Intelligence: Intellectual Property Policy Considerations”.
Katfriend Vicente Zafrilla reports on the Conference “Can robots invent and create? A dialogue between Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property”. Tosshan Ramgolam reports on our own Kat Eleonora Rosati holding the official book launch for her new book, Copyright and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Rachel Mumby and Liz McAuliffe write about AIPPI UK Event Report: AI Generated Innovation.
Hayleigh Bosher reviews Non-Conventional Copyright, Do New and Atypical Works Deserve Protection. Africa Correspondent Chijioke Okorie posts IP and innovation in a post-demutualised Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Week ending 24 March

Copyright 

Kat Eleonora Rosati takes a look to article 13 of the draft of the DSM directive in Trying to understand Article 13. Still Eleonora reports on two key decisions of the Italian Supreme Court issued concerning the liability of intermediaries for third-party IPR infringements.
Katfriend Oliver Fairhurst discusses When does AI infringe copyright?
GuestKat Cecilia Sbrolli writes Seal the deal: Canadian court waxes off copyright infringement in Pyrrha Design Inc. v. Plum and Posey Inc.
Africa Correspondent Chijioke Okorie posts The proposed fair use exception under South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill.

Trade marks

Kat friend Shawn Poon discusses the issue of bad faith in connection with trade mark prosecution in Bad faith in registering a trademark when there was a pre-existing relationship and the registrant "hijacked" the mark.
GuestKat Nedim Malovic takes a look to the CJEU Textilis decision in CJEU applies Louboutin, clarifying notion of ‘shape, or another characteristic, which gives substantial value to the goods'.

Patents

The AmeriKat Annsley Merelle Ward posts BREAKING: CJEU delivers another blow to SPC owners in Abraxis Article 3(d) (or 1(b)) battle.
GuestKat Rose Hughes discusses the new referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal in The patentability of computer simulated methods - another referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal.
Still Rose discusses "Should everyone else change, or just the Patentee?": Progress of the Broad's CRISPR appeal and "A loaf of bread", the Walrus said, “is what we chiefly need", but did he remember IP?

IPR Carousel

Asia Correspondent Tian Lu posts A brief introduction of the new Chinese Foreign Investment Law and its protection for IPR, Kat Neil Wilkof writes about The U.S. college admission scandal: when brands, brand equity and status "break bad".
Peter Ling reviews Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in the EU Member States. GuestKat Ieva Giedrimaite discusses Smart Contracts: Pros and Cons of the New Shiny Thing

Week ending 17 March

Trade marks

GuestKat Peter Ling discusses a decision of the EU General Court that rejected an application to register the word mark "MARRY ME" for goods and services related to online dating.

GuestKat Nedim Malovic analyses a decision of EUIPO Fourth Board of Appeal which found that ‘SO…?’ and ‘S.O.’ are confusingly similar, even if the said marks are envisaged for different classes of the Nice Classification.

Designs

GuestKat Alex Woolgar takes a look at the English Court of Appeal's judgment in PulseOn Oy v Garmin (Europe) Limited [2019] EWCA Civ 138 which found that the design at issue was valid, but not infringed.

I am too busy!

Patents

In Patent Oscars: The good, the bad and the ugly, GuestKat Rose Hughes takes the opportunity to review the rare occasions in which patents have made it to the screen.

AmeriKat Annsley Merelle Ward analyses the decision TQ Delta v Zyxel [2019] EWHC 562 in the battle between TQ Delta and ZyXEL concerning two of TQ Delta's patents which are claimed to be essential - EP 1 453 268 “Multicarrier communication with variable overhead rate” (“the 268 Patent”); and EP 1 792 430 “CRC counter normalisation” (“the 430 Patent”).

Copyright

GuestKat Mathilde Pavis reports on the Paris Tribunal (Tribunal de Grande Instance), UFC-Que Choisir v Google Inc decision. The Paris Tribunal found 38 clauses of the Terms and Conditions of Google to contain unfair terms and declared them null and void as a result. Mathilde analyses two of these clauses as they relate to copyright.

Africa Correspondent Chijioke Okorie analyses the claims of music artist popularly known as Danny Young (real name: Ajibola Muyiwa Danladi) against Tiwa Savage (Best African Act, MTV Europe Music Awards 2018) and her record label, Mavin Records Ltd (the “Defendants”). Danny Young has claimed the sum of N200million (approximately $560,000) for copyright infringement regarding his song, “Oju Tiwon” and N5million (approximately $13,000) for costs of the action.

China Correspondent Tian Lu discusses the 2018 copyright registration statistics of China published in March 2019 by the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC).

IPR Carousel

Kat friend Fredy Sánchez Merino provides his regular review of IP developments in Latin America.

PREVIOUSLY ON NEVER TOO LATE

Never Too Late 220 [Week ending 10 Mar] Organic production logo of the EU may not be placed on meat derived from animals that have been slaughtered in accordance with religious rites if not first being stunned. New decision of the Court of Justice of the EU C-497/17 | Your FRANDly Update: Ericsson v HTC, FRAND in India, jurisdictional issues (again), Unwired Planet v Huawei, ASUS v Interdigital and more | IP Law Summer School returns to beautiful Cambridge | Patent infringement and recovery of profits in Italy: doctrine of equivalence and requirement of negligence | Book review: Creating Economy – Enterprise, Intellectual Property and the Valuation of Goods | Apple's trade mark opposition goes pear shaped... | Gantry-gate: CIPA releases statement on FD4/P6 (Infringement and Validity) | Swedish trade mark court sees its true colours shining through | Can a CJEU ruling on the European system of central banks pave the way towards an even greater impact of CJEU IP rulings?
Never Too Late 219 [Week ending 3 Mar] Dutch court rules that patents based on Ethiopian Teff flour lack inventiveness - Ancientgrain BV and Bakels Senior NV | Radical changes in the SPC system in the EU: SPC export and stockpiling exception soon a reality | BREAKING: 2018 FD4 (P6 - Infringement and Validity) Pass Mark Reduced | BREAKING: Mr Justice Arnold finds Genentech's anti-IL-17 patent and SPC application invalid, but not without a CJEU reference first | The future of past(a)? | Keeping up with the Copyright Directive | A reminder that originality threshold is low, but does indeed exist | Innovation in the mass entertainment industry: maybe ask the Romans | Dance dance dance: another episode in the Fortnite saga | 31 countries offer ‘site blocking’ in cases of copyright infringement, but Switzerland is not one of them | Milan court partly sides with Banksy in interim proceedings for trade mark and copyright infringement | - 15 days to the Textilis decision: “The shape, or another characteristic, which gives substantial value to the goods” | Registered #hashmarks: Yes, No, or Maybe? | Can the god of wealth be registered as a trade mark, and why? | EU General Court proves it can be a real heartbreaker when it comes to trade mark applications | Law Society's guidance on IP and No-Deal Brexit | Magical Realism: Crypto-Coins, Country Brands and More | IP Up in the Air: Report from the Airbus IP Seminar | 3D Trademarks and Other Non-Traditional Trademarks – Report on the Joint University of Geneva/INTA Yearly Conference on Intellectual Property
Never Too Late 218 [Week ending 24 Feb] Purity can be unconventional, a new position for the EPO boards of appeal (T 1085/13) |EPO's Administrative Council powerless to amend the EPC: The latest on T 1063/18 | Annual Cambridge CIPIL Conference on mens rea in IP | Book review: Assessing Intellectual Property Compliance in Contemporary China | Copyright Trolling: Abusive Litigation Based on a GPL Compliance | Facebook found liable for hosting links to unlicensed content | Digitized images of works in the public domain: what rights vest in them? Analysis of the recent BGH Reiss-Engelhorn judgment - Part 1 | Digitized images of works in the public domain: what rights vest in them? Analysis of the recent BGH Reiss-Engelhorn judgment - Part 2 | ‘Glen Buchenbach’ is a misleading indication, Hamburg Court rules | Cyprus modernizes Trade Marks Act following implementation of the EU Trade Mark Directive | BOOKING.COM – When does adding a generic TLD to a generic word make the sign non-generic? | Britannia Rules on SEPs – But is it FRAND? | Breaking: New referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal on double-patenting
Never Too Late 217 [Week ending 17 Feb] Further thoughts on Levola Hengelo v Smilde Foods and the taste of cheese: did the Court create a "validation" test? | Summary of the roundtable organised by the Nigerian Copyright Commission | BREAKING: Agreement on DSM Directive reached in trilogue| Gigi Hadid faces another Copyright Infringement Claim after posting picture of herself on Instagram |Red Sole Diaries: another chapter | Validity of a Supplementary Protection Certificate. Testing the boundaries in a new ruling by the Swiss Tribunal Federal| Closing AGPL cloud services loop-hole: a MongoDB approach |Book review: Tritton on Intellectual Property in Europe |IP News from the Southern Cone