Around the IP Blogs

Beauty is in the eye of the (cat) beholder

Patents 

The Patently-O Blog featured a guest post by Profs. Jorge L. Conteras and Yang Yu, who discussed the impact of China’s new anti-suit injunctions (namely, an injunction issued by a national judicial authority, which prevents parties to litigate in parallel in other jurisdictions). The authors looked into two recent anti-suit injunctions issued by the Chinese courts (Xiami v. InterDigital and Huawei v. Conversant), and considered how this practice, which is also employed by courts in other countries, such as the US and in the UK, may impact global FRAND litigation. 

The topic of anti-suit injunctions was also addressed last week in the SpicyIP blog, where, in addition to the two Chinese cases, the authors commented on an “anti-anti-suit” injunction issued by the Delhi High Court in response to the Chinese decision in Xiaomi v. InterDigital. 

Last month, India and South Africa issued a Joint Statement before the WTO TRIPS Council, requesting the waiver of certain obligations under the TRIPS Agreement in order to prevent, contain or treat COVID-19. In a two- art post, the SpicyIP Blog shared a thoughtful analysis of the Joint Statement and of the underlying concern of developing countries that intellectual property rights may hinder the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Trade Marks 

The Marques Class 46 Blog commented on the substantive examination by Canada of international trade mark applications under the Madrid Protocol. The comment discusses various procedural steps of the substantive examination that will be faced by a non-Canadian applicant, including the need for a local agent and how the likelihood of confusion test will be addressed by the Canadian IPO. 

Other 

The European Parliament has been actively advancing legislative proposals to regulate various aspects of Artificial Intelligence. One of its latest Resolutions concerns the civil liability framework for damage caused by AI.The Conflict of Laws Blog critically addressed this legal initiative from the perspective of private international law. 

The JIPLP Blog has started a series “In conversation with…”, and the first to be interviewed is Etienne Sanz de Acedo, the CEO of INTA. The JIPLP blog and Etienne talked about the impact of the pandemic on trade mark owners and consumers, drew parallels between plain packaging and recent governmental restrictions due to COVID-19, and discussed how the INTA Annual Meeting will be organized online in November of this year.