Around the IP blogs

The copycat

Trade marks 

The Fashion Law reports on an on-going dispute between Amiri, a high end fashion brand, and Zara. The $3 million lawsuit revolves around a pair of skinny jeans, combining denim and biker-style leather details, which Zara allegedly copied from Amiri. Amiri invokes trade dress infringement and unfair competition, while Zara denies any wrong-doing and argues that Amiri’s jeans are functional and generic.

Copyright 

During the last three months, you have likely received a message or two, where a friend sent you a pdf version of your favourite journal. SpicyIP looked into the legality of forwarding an magazine issue, which was previously made available, for free, by its publisher. Can an implied license be claimed in this case? SpicyIP addresses a recent case in this regard, where the Indian Newspaper Society advised its members to take legal action against any circulation of free PDFs of electronic papers.

The New York Times plunged into the world of fanfiction literature, looking into whether standards plot points and tropes from a fan-generated universe can be protected by copyright. The case at hand involves two authors who have built their literary works around the so-called Omegaverse universe, a genre of erotic fanfiction filled with wolf-like characters. First, Ms. Cain, the earlier writer, filed DMCA notices to online retailers, requiring them to stop selling Ms. Ellis’s books, alleging plagiarism. Now Ms. Ellis has filed a lawsuit against Ms. Can in federal court of Oklahoma, seeking damages for defamation and for filing false copyright infringement notices This might be the first case where a judge is to rule on how protectable fanfiction tropes are.

Patents 

Foss Patents published a lengthy analysis of a recent decision by the Mannheim Regional Court in the Nokia v. Daimler case. Apparently taking a cue from the Munich I Regional Court’s guidelines for Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs), the Mannheim court concluded that it had been wrongly applying the Court Of Justice’s ruling in C-170/13 Huawei v. ZTE. According to the new reading by the German Court, FRAND defense in SEP disputes shall be limited to cases where the SEP holder did not offer the implementer a license on FRAND terms. Foss Patents providers the readers with detailed tables of how this interpretation could be put into practice and why, in its the opinion, the Mannheim court is wrong in its new reading of C-170/13.

Kluwer Patent Blog pondered whether the Spanish regime for provisional measures had been better adapted to the needs of right holders before Spain implemented the 2004/48/EC Enforcement Directive. Miquel Montañá, the contributing author, looked into how the Spanish case-law prior to the Directive allowed right holders to ask for a preliminary injunction in a situation where no acts of infringement or imminent infringement had been established.

Other 

Our cousin blog, the IPTango, announced the launch of their refreshed website, in order to improve their readers’ experience. Check IPTango latest posts on intellectual property law and practice in Latin America.

The First Instance Commercial Court of Nanterre has recently issued a ruling, defining the nature of Bitcoins under French civil law. DLA Piper reported on this case. The court characterized Bitcoins as consumable and fungible assets and then applied this characterization to a case of loans of Bitcoins.