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

It is never too late to catch up with the IPKat! If you could not keep up with us last week, then join this Kat for a summary of what you missed.

Trade Marks and Geographical Indications

Marcel Pemsel argued that being less precise could assist in the battle for distinctiveness, referencing a recent decision of the EU General Court that examined whether the trade mark "Hinterland" lacked distinctiveness and was descriptive. Regarding descriptiveness, the Court found that "Hinterland" and the alcoholic beverages sold under that name did not have a sufficiently direct link, it did not designate a specific geographical area, and it did not inform the public of particular characteristics of those beverages that would lead them to believe the beverages were produced in a specific geographical area. On distinctiveness, the Court concluded that the trade mark was distinctive, as "Hinterland" did not have an immediately perceivable meaning for the relevant beverages, and had not become a generic term. 

Image by Riana Harvey

Kevin Bercimuelle-Chamot reported on a recent decision of the Board of Appeal of the EUIPO concerning the genuine use of a trade mark, and emphasised the importance of submitting “good evidence” to the Board. The Board was tasked with determining whether the EU trade mark “ICE”, owned by Gilmar S.P.A., could be revoked due to non-use. Although the Board acknowledged that Gilmar had made some sales during the relevant five-year period, it could not find any concrete, objective and clear evidence demonstrating the genuine use of the trade mark and, therefore, upheld the revocation application.

Katfriends Güldeniz Doğan Alkan and Hatice İnci Turan (Gün + Partners Law Firm) commented on a recent decision of the Republic of Türkiye Court of Cassation concerning the registrability of sounds as trade marks. The Court was asked to decide whether a 32-second-long song could be registered as a sound mark. It ruled that, due to a lack of distinctiveness and the failure to indicate the origin of the goods and services applied for, the “NİLOYA” song was not capable of being registered as a trade mark.

Copyright

Chijioke Okorie discussed the challenge of accurately and fairly recognising the contributions of key participants in the creation of African language datasets through an “African dataset creation split sheet” case study. After explaining what music split sheets are and introducing a major issue arising from them (i.e., determining the percentage each party has contributed, and thus their percentage of ownership), a parallel with African language datasets was identified. Adopting the approach used for music split sheets could effectively clarify the creation process of these datasets and allow for proper acknowledgement of each party’s contributions.

Book Review

Katfriend Felicia Caponigri (Founder of Fashion by Felicia and Visiting Scholar at Chicago-Kent College of Law) reviewed the book Transboundary Heritage and Intellectual Property Law: Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage edited by Patricia Covarrubia. The book primarily addresses the issue of protecting transboundary cultural interactions. A recurring theme among the book’s authors is the analysis of the challenge presented by the tension between “cultural fluidity” and “cultural uniformity”, against the dichotomies that exist in cultural heritage law and intellectual property law.

News and Opportunities

Marcel Pemsel notified The IPKat readers about some events and opportunities. Upcoming IP events include a webinar titled “IP and Startups: What, Why, How” to be organised by 4iP Council, and a panel discussion, “Design rights: Is this their time to shine?” to be held in London. The job opportunity of the week is a postdoctoral researcher position in intellectual property rights and open science at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. For details and further events and news, do not forget to have a look at our latest “Sunday Surprises” post here.