Never Too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week!

If you spent the last week of June enjoying the warmer weather rather than reading the IP news (for this Kat's part, she's been soaking up the Italian sunshine before the ATRIP Conference), here's the summary of what you missed.

Trade Marks

A Kat taking a break in the Tuscan shade.
Photo by Jocelyn Bosse.

This Kat reflected on the legal strategy of the brand owners who have suspended their operations in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, but are seeking to maintain their Russian trade mark rights.

Marcel Pemsel discussed the latest decision from the CJEU in EUIPO v Indo European Foods, which confirmed that the General Court could hear an action that was brought against a decision of the EUIPO Board of Appeal rendered before Brexit took full effect.

Katfriend Eric Möhlenberg (Friedrich Graf von Westphalen) explored the trends in the protection of sound marks in light of the decisions of the EUIPO and CJEU. While the number of applications is increasing, the analysis shows that distinctiveness remains a key difficulty.

Nedim Malovic considered the challenge of distinguishing personal use from use in the course of trade in trade mark infringement proceedings. In a case about the importation of counterfeit goods, the District Court of The Hague confirmed that a natural person who engages in sales which, because of their volume, frequency, or other characteristics, is acting in the course of trade.

Copyright

Kevin Bercimuelle-Chamot analysed a recent decision of the Paris Court of Appeal about rights of an author whose photograph was cropped to remove his name. The Court held that there had been an infringement of the author's moral right of attribution, but the slight cropping did not infringe his right of integrity, nor his reproduction rights. 

Technology Law

Alessandro Cerri reviewed the book Regulating the Synthetic Society: Generative AI, Legal Questions, and Societal Challenges by Bart van der Sloot (Tilburg University). The book explores the societal challenges raised by AI technology and how it should be regulated, with a particular focus on EU law (including the GDPR and the AI Act).