Around the IP Blogs

February is finally here, Mercury retrograde is over and we can finally breathe lightly! Take this opportunity not only to renew your energies but also to check what has been going on around the IP blogs.

A Kat relaxing after a long January

Copyright

The Kluwer Copyright Blog published a handful of interesting posts over the past few days: (i) a summary of and comment to a decision of the Dutch Supreme Court, which held that DJs should also be considered phonogram producers in a case involving a famous DJ and his record label; (ii) a two-part analysis of the interface between copyright and football games (part I, part II), which covered the possible protection of rules and other aspects of a match through copyright; (iii) a summary of and comment to the English High Court decision on misuse of private information and copyright infringement in a letter written by the Duchess of Sussex.

The IPWatchdog published an article discussing controversial aspects of state compulsory ebook and audiobook licensing from a legal and policy perspective, bearing in mind the supremacy of the US Copyright Act over state laws.

Designs

Marques Class 99 reported on the UKIPO's recently launched call for views on the design system. The call for views was also reported by The IPKat and can be read here. 

The Legal-Patent blog summarised a recent decision of the CJEU in a dispute involving two grill bowl designs: the GRILL BOWL Community design was challenged in its individual character because of an older national grill bowl design – submitted as a patent specification. 

Patents

IPFinance published an article on the USPTO's new patent search tool, which features a series of improvements on the previous version. 

PatentlyO posted on the US Utility Patent Applications Allowance Rate followed by a quick analysis of the results.

The European Patent Office published its 2022 Guidelines for Examination and the Kluwer Patent Blog prepared a post with the 4 main changes in the new version of the guidelines. 

Trade Marks

PatentlyO reported on a recent rejection by the Federal Circuit of gTLD's trademark registration for .SUCKS

The TTABlog published reports on two interesting decisions (i) the first was a decision of the USPTO regarding two trade marks in classes 30, 35 and 40 and considered the risk of confusion between the rejected mark and the CRC Kosher Certification Mark; (ii) the second was a decision of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon reversing a USPTO Board's decision which had dismissed an opposition to registration of the mark MANIMAL for a wide variety of clothing, including "children’s clothing."

Should commonly used phrases or descriptions be protected by trade marks? (No.) That was the question posed by the Likelihood of Confusion blog in a comment to a lawsuit involving the registered trade mark "thick n juicy".

Miscellaneous

The Kluwer Trademark Blog published an article on the recent clarification by the Hungarian Supreme Court of the rules for the revision of second instance decisions regarding the validity of intellectual property rights. 

FOSS Patents brought a thought-provoking article about competition law issues arising from the recent discussion about Apple's compliance (or non-compliance) with a Dutch competition ruling - with Apple now saying that it will charge a 27% commission on payments made through alternative payment systems.