Sunday Surprises

While you are getting your sequins ready for the NYE party, we bring some exciting IP news and opportunities to finish off the year. 

Image: flickr.com

Katfood

The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corp., et al.

This week’s big IP news is the New York Times suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, trademark dilution and other violations of existing laws. According to the complaint, the defendants have made an unlawful use of The Times’s content to create competing artificial intelligence products, which threaten the Times’s ability to provide trustworthy information, news analysis, and commentary. 

As with most current cases related to AI’s copyright infringement, this one will most likely result in the issuance of a landmark ruling. The IPKat will continue to report on the progress of the case.

Perceived implications of recent Court of Appeal of England and Wales’s ruling on originality

Recently, Eleonora Rosati reported on a judgment of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales inter alia restating the UK standard of originality. The Art Newspaper has followed up on the ruling and the commentary, speculating on the potential implications thereof concerning the copyright status of digitized images of public domain artworks. The whole editorial is available here. 

Open consultation on the EUIPO Strategic Plan 2030

As the implementation of the upcoming EUIPO Strategic Plan 2030 is scheduled to start on 1 January 2025, the preparation phase to draw up the plan starts with an internal and external consultation, followed by a thorough analysis of all the contributions as well as an extensive exchange during the first semester of 2024. In autumn, the draft Strategic Plan 2030 will be put forward for adoption. The consultation phase of the SP2030 will run until 16 February 2024 and is open to all interested stakeholders, experts from the intellectual property system and members of the general public. More information can be found here.

The Blog

The IPKat Events Page

This is a reminder that we keep an up-to-date IP-related events page here. We recommend checking it on a regular basis, to fill your agenda with worthwhile professional events. 

Voting reminder

This is a reminder that our Readers can vote for their favourite intellectual property law books of 2023 in the annual IPKat Book of the Year Awards! Votes must be made via email before 15 January 2024 as per the instructions in this post.

Opportunities

Call for Expressions of Interest

The Consumer Empowerment Project (“CEP”) offers four research grants, one in each of the participating countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium), with the primary objective of supporting Ph.D. students in their research endeavours focused on EU consumer rights. CEP invites public and private universities in the above-mentioned countries to express their interest in joining the Scholarship Initiative. To express interest, candidacy must be submitted by completing the application form provided on CEP’s website (here) by 15 January 2024.

Opportunity at WIPO

The Global Health Unit, which is part of the World Intellectual Property Organization, is seeking to recruit a Health Access and Local Manufacturing Expert. The position includes supporting the head of global health at WIPO to implement special projects on IP-related to access to medical technologies, patent litigation, one health AMR, AI for health, licensing, technology transfer and local manufacturing. More information and application details can be found here.