Around the IP Blogs

The extra winter weight

Copyright 

While EU Member States are struggling with the implementation of Art. 17 of the DSM Directive [see The IPKat’s comment on the German implementation proposal here], the Polish referral as to the article’s incompatibility with the EU Fundamental Rights Charter is pending before the Court of Justice. Last week, Paul Keller assisted to the court hearings and prepared a detailed overview of the parties’ arguments for the Kluwer Copyright Blog. 

The SpicyIP Blog featured a two-part post [here and here] on the proposed amendments to the Indian Copyright Act. Suggested modifications (and the blog’s extensive analysis) cover issues of copyright exceptions and limitations, web-site blocking, intermediary liability, as well as the criminal treatment of copyright violations. 

Patents 

IPKat’s sister blog, IPTango, reported on Brazil’s participation in the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH). Although Brazil is not part of the Global PPH, it does have several bilateral PCT-PPH agreements and recent statistics, published by the Brazilian Intellectual Property Office, show that this fast-track procedure is growing in popularity among applicants filing in Brazil. 

Trade marks 

Marques Class 46 blog announced a series of posts that will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on trade mark law. The first two posts will deal with Amazon’s Alexa as potentially constituting potential the “average consumer”, and damages caused by artificial intelligence. 

Fashion Law discussed a recent decision of the Beijing Intellectual Property Court concerning trade mark registration of the clover image by the high-end jewelry brand Van Cleef. The Court upheld the earlier decision of the Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration concerning the invalidation of the trade mark due to its lack of distinctiveness. The issue is now pending before the High People’s Court in Beijing. 

Other 

The JIPLP blog shared the news that selected IP-related articles and book chapters published by OUP have been made freely accessible in connection with INTA’s 2020 Annual Meeting on-line. Access is free until December 7th.