Around the IP Blogs

Although a bleak winter week, the IPKat is here to warm you up with tales of interesting posts from the IP blogs.  

TRADE MARKS

Following a public consultation that took place between June and August 2021, the UKIPO recently announced that the government is not proposing to change the current IPRs exhaustion regime in the UK. MARQUES has provided further insight and commentary on this announcement.

Recently, Louis Vuitton suffered a defeat in its attempt to block the registration of a contested EU trade mark application. In a decision dated January 14, 2022, the EUIPO Opposition Division found that there was no likelihood of confusion between the conflicting marks and that Louis Vuitton had also failed to prove the reputation of its opposing marks. For more information on the background and the outcome, see The Fashion Law.

COPYRIGHT

The proposal for a Regulation on a Single Market for Digital Services (the Digital Services Act – DSA), adopted by the EP on January 20, (see below) prompted the European Copyright Society (ECS) to submit a commentary on the proposal from a copyright perspective. The summary was published via the Kluwer Copyright Blog.

YouTube has published its first Copyright Transparency Report after the transposition deadline of the "new" DSM Directive and the liability regime introduced by its Article 17. Is overblocking real? The figures provide interesting data and the Kluwer Copyright Blog provides its commentary.

The requirements for copyright joint authorship and co-ownership were the main topic of a new lawsuit in the U.S., Crabtree v. Kirkman, involving the popular comic book and animated series "Invincible". Copyright Lately reported on the background and outcome of the dispute.

Do you like Alejandro Jodorowsky? Do you know his attempt to film Frank Herbert's novel "Dune" (which was then adapted by David Lynch and more recently by Denis Villeneuve)? The reason for this mention and the story behind the IP rights to his film and the few copies of the film's storyboard and script known as "Jodorowsky's Dune Bible" is explained by TechnoLlama.

PATENTS

Green light for the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court in the EU! The Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on provisional application entered into force on 19 January 2022 and the system is expected to be operational before the end of 2022. IPWatchdog comments on the future impact on patent protection and litigation in Europe.

IP Finance recently reported on a decision SecurityPoint Holdings v. United States by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims awarding the United States over $100 million for infringement of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) patents.

Ericsson is suing Apple in three German courts, in the Netherlands, and in Brazil over 5G and other patents (in addition to a handful of U.S. lawsuits), and FOSS Patents explains why.

OTHER

MEPs gave the green light to start negotiations with Member States. The draft DSA was approved with 530 votes against 78, with 80 abstentions, on Thursday (20 January). "The Digital Services Act could now become the new gold standard for digital regulation, not just in Europe but around the world" said Christel Schaldemose, the lead EU lawmaker for the bill. For more information, see the press release of the European Parliament.