Around the IP Blogs

April is just around the corner! A good time for The IPKat to report on some of the posts compiled this week on the surrounding IP blogs.

TRADE MARKS

A few days ago, the virtual event "Metaverse Fashion Week" (MVFW) started in the virtual environment called "Decentraland". The Wall Street Journal reported on the event, which was "attended" by Dolce & Gabbana, Paco Rabanne, Elie Saab, Tommy Hilfiger, Etro, Dundas, Cavalli, Cider, and The Fabricant, among others. The Fashion Law discussed the implications of trade mark protection in the Metaverse. Topics included the territorial scope of existing marks, the potential need to expand the specifications of trade marks used in the Metaverse, the importance of clearance searches before entering this environment, and the consideration of co-existence agreements to avoid conflicts.

Sometimes companies produce goods that incorporate third-party components or spare parts. This marks a trend of "upcycling" or "creative reuse" that does not seem to stop. When they reuse, do they look for labels or stamps that identify the product as rebuilt, refurbished or repaired? How far does the first sale or "exhaustion" principle extend in the United States? IPWatchDog has commented on two recent decisions that address the above questions.

Returning to U.S. jurisdiction, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the USPTO correctly refused to register the mark ".SUCKS", in standard characters and a stylized, pixelated font, because it does not function as a trademark for the services of the applicant's domain name registry operator. The background and outcome of this decision are reported by IP Update and the original decision is available in full here.

In Japan, the JPO recently ruled on a trade mark parody case involving Lacoste. The well-known company filed an opposition to the trade mark application "OCOSITE" for fashion products in class 25. Background and outcome are reported by Marks IP.

COPYRIGHT

As reported by the Kluwer Copyright Blog, the Estonian Supreme Court recently ruled on the communication to the public of phonograms by a (non-profit) dance school. The court discussed the amount of equitable remuneration that phonogram producers and performers are entitled to claim when a phonogram published for commercial purposes, or a reproduction thereof, is used for communication to the public.

CLASS 99 by Marques reported on the recent study by the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights of EUIPO on "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the infringement and enforcement of copyright and designs" prepared in collaboration with the Observatory's Expert Group on the “Impact of Technology”. The study and the EUIPO Observatory's other publications can be found here.

PATENTS

In Switzerland, the Supreme Court recently upheld a decision of the Federal Patent Court in an infringement case involving BD and Ypsomed and discussed intermediate generalisations. FPC Review comments on the case.

A new petition for certiorari is pending in the U.S. in Interactive Wearables, LLC v. Polar Electro Oy, 21-1281 (Supreme Court 2022), involving the patentability of a hardware electronic device. Patentlyo reported on the petition.

"The Neighbours' Cat" by Fouquier ॐ is marked with CC0 1.0.