Never Too Late: if you missed the IPKat last week

This Kat has become a purr-ito

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the Kats are providing updates and commentary from around the world of IP.

Copyright

PermaKat Eleonora Rosati considered the ways in which EU Member States have been exercising (and derogated from the limits of) their discretion in transposing the DSM Directive so far, following June's deadline to do so, with a focus on Italy.

In a review of Art and Copyright by Simon Stokes (Partner at Blake Morgan), Katfriend Alexander Herman of the Institute of Art and Law drew attention to the new third edition's combination of detail and accessibility, making it a "welcome addition to any library".

Patents

GuestKat Rose Hughes summarised a recent judgment of the Australian Federal Circuit, which found that a literal interpretation of "first approval" in patent term extension (PTE) legislation leads to “manifest absurdity”, while leaving some questions, such as whether a PTE application could be based on a third party approval without that third party's consent, without an explicit, definitive answer.

Trade marks

Germany's leporine love affair continues unabated, with former GuestKat Peter Ling reporting on the Federal Court of Justice's recent decision that Lindt owns an unregistered trade mark in the abstract colour gold in the chocolate bunny category, thanks to its acquired recognition by over 70% of the population, and that the EU Trade Mark Directive - which limits the types of signs which can be registered - does not have retroactive effect. 

Other

Katfriends Anja Geller (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität/Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition) and Zihao Li (CREATe, University of Glasgow) contributed an analysis of China's recently-passed comprehensive data protection law, which will enter into force on 1 November 2021. 

Picture from AllNikArt on Pixabay