Never Too Late: if you missed the IPKat last week

The Tiroler Adler may fly, but
the Tiroler Katze prefers to snooze

The IPKat served as a platform for reporting and debate on a range of topics last week, not least through the range of guest posts published. 

Copyright

PermaKat Eleonora Rosati reported on the publication of AG Øe's Opinion, advising the  CJEU to rule that Article 17 is compatible with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and should not be annulled, pursuant to Poland's complaint in C-401/19.

Kat friend Frederic Blockx commented critically on the General Court's ruling in T-185/19 on the copyrightability of standards, finding its approach to creativity especially dubious.

SpecialKat Hayleigh Bosher explained some of the key regulatory recommendations made in the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee's Report on the Economics of Music Streaming, which called for "a complete reset".

Patents

A dialogue on the usefulness of the proposed TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 vaccines opened up between two sets of Kat friends, with  Prashant Reddy T. and Yogesh Pai arguing that the exercise is futile and Murali Neelakantan and Siva Thambisetty responding.

A collective of Katfriends from Stibbe reported on recent patent case law in Belgium, with notable cases in 2020 mostly being of the pharmaceutical variety.

Does the confidential and without privilege nature of a document made in one jurisdiction of a multi-jurisdictional dispute retain that character in parallel proceedings elsewhere? Katfriend Henry Yang summarised the reasoning of the Court of Appeal thereto in the recent case of Autostore v Ocado.

GuestKat Rose Hughes considered the tricky balance to be struck in determining when pre-clinical data plausibly supports a therapeutic effect, as was raised in a recent Board of Appeal decision (T 966/18). 

Continuing with news from the EPO, Rose Hughes also reported on the the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) decision in G1/21 (ViCo oral proceedings), which she characterised as dodging controversy and conflict, but promoting legal uncertainty.

Trade marks

Eleonora Rosati also discussed the General Court's decision that the shape of Guerlain's Rouge G lipstick case can be registered as a trade mark, reversing the prior decision of the EUIPO First Board of Appeal (2292/2019-1), which should come as a relief to [would be] proprietors of less conventional marks.

The clarification of EU trade mark law established in MASSI that visual and aural similarities may be counteracted by conceptual differences was applied by the General Court to overturn the opposition of the holder of an existing CYRUS mark to an application made by representatives of Miley Cyrus, as described by GuestKat Riana Harvey.

Other

SpecialKat Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo reported on the amicable end to a dispute between CRT and Heineken over the use of the word "Tequila" in Desperados beer, which came about due to the geographical indications protection afforded to "Tequila" in the EU.

Last month, the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law’s Center for Intellectual Property, Information, and Privacy Law held its 12th Annual Ethics in the Practice of IP Law virtual seminar, with Katfriend Adam Ernette providing a conference report.