Sunday Surprises

Image from Pixabay

Summer is well underway - although this Kat has been enjoying a mild and sunny winter in the southern hemisphere, whilst keeping an eye on IP news and events. Here's the latest updates.

Upcoming Conferences

The "CITMA Autumn Conference" will take place on 19 October 2023 at the Library of Birmingham, UK. The speakers include Tom Nener (Pinsent Masons), Kate O’Rourke (Mewburn Ellis) and Andrew Marsden (Wilson Gunn). Registration closes on 6 October 2023. More details, here.

The second edition of the "Conférence luxembourgeoise sur la jurisprudence européenne en propriété intellectuelle (JEuPI)" will take place on 28 September 2023 in Luxemburg, hosted at the Chambre de Commerce du Luxembourg. This year's conference focuses on the topic "L’immatériel et le matériel en propriété intellectuelle" (if you could not work it out, that means "The immaterial and the material in intellectual property"). The conference is free, but registration is required, which closes on 25 September 2023. Spaces are limited, so register soon. The detailed program and registration can be found on the website for L’Institut de la Propriété Intellectuelle Luxembourg (IPIL), here.

Case Updates

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales released two judgments that may interest readers, which the IPKat is currently digesting.  In the case of Dr Craig Steven Wright v BTC Core, the Court found that the bitcoin file format had been fixed when the first bitcoin blockchain was written. As for JC Bamford Excavators Ltd v Manitou UK Ltd, the Court addressed legal questions about confidential information and the public interest in open justice.

On Wednesday, a US federal judge gave three illustrators another chance at suing text to image AI developers claiming that the developers had scraped images from the internet, including their protected art, to train AI models.  The developers filed motions to dismiss the claim which Judge William Orrick almost agreed with, but gave the illustrators another chance to refile a new complaint urging them to show how their artwork was actually involved.  

  

Publications

Katfriend, James Nurton, has written an article for WIPO Magazine on the future of IP-backed financing, an area where investors have struggled to value. James explores private and public initiatives which are unlocking opportunities for IP-backed financing. You can read more here.