Tuesday Tiddlywinks

Kat-gathering

Autumn is in full swing in the Northern hemisphere and so are activities, events, and developments in the IP field. Take a look below for the latest news! 

Also: don't forget to check our Events page on a regular basis, including to register to attend our own webinar 'Image Rights in the Age of AI: Less is More or More is Better?' on 30 October 2024.

Events

Francisco Lucas Pires Distinguished Lecture - New Technologies and the EU: The Role of the Court of Justice (14 October 2024)

On 14 October 2024, M. Maciej Szpunar, the First Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union, will deliver a lecture at Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon on the critical topic of "New Technologies and the EU: The Role of the Court of Justice".

For further information and to register, click here.

European Copyright Legislation – Quo Vadis? (21 October 2024)

Over 30 years have passed since the efforts to harmonize European copyright law began. However, the use of directives focusing on specific practical or legal issues, and especially the diverging national implementations, has resulted in a legal situation that is still fragmented. The Court of Justice of the European Union has not been able to remedy this situation entirely. Has the time come for the next step? Should European copyright law be unified through a regulation? If that’s not feasible, should the Court's case law at least be codified?

If you are also interested in these questions, join this webinar organized by the Swedish Copyright Society on 21 October 2024. For further information and to register, click here.

CIPIL (University of Cambridge) Evening Seminars

The Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL) at the University of Cambridge has published its programme of evening seminars for the Michaelmas Term. They are:

• Will Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge Transform Intellectual Property? Cautionary Lessons from the WIPO Genetic Resources Treaty (17 October 2024)
• Synthetic Data, Data Protection and Intellectual Property (24 October 2024)
• Rethinking International Intellectual Property through the Third World Approaches to International Law (14 November 2024)
• The “Work” in United Kingdom Copyright Law after Brexit (21 November 2024)

Opportunities

Postdoctoral Researcher in Competition Law & Digital Regulation at Tilburg University

The Department of TILT (Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society) has a vacancy for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Competition Law & Digital Regulation. The selected candidate will contribute to research projects on the regulation of digital platforms and data.

The application deadline is 27 October 2024. For further information, click here.

Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowships 2025-2026

The Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy at George Mason University – Antonin Scalia Law School invites applications for a non-resident fellowship program. The Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowship program is designed to develop rigorous scholarship on IP, creativity, and innovation law and policy and consists of a series of three invitation-only meetings over the course of a year.

The deadline for applying is 27 November 2024. For further information, click here.

Other developments

Misleading invoices to EUIPO customers: A recent German decision

In September 2024, the Munich Court (Germany) found three defendants guilty of commercial gang fraud for sending misleading invoices to EUIPO customers. Each defendant was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months of imprisonment, suspended with a three-year probation period. The Court also ordered that the confiscation of around €200,000 – the amount the fraudsters unlawfully obtained – to be used for compensation.

The EUIPO considers this an important legal precedent, marking the time that a criminal court of an EU Member State has qualified the sending of misleading payment requests to intellectual property (IP) system users as a criminal offence of fraud. This decision paves the way for ongoing and future investigations and indictments in other jurisdictions.

In December 2020, following numerous reports from customers, the EUIPO filed a criminal complaint for suspected fraud before the competent Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany.

The fraud scheme consisted of letters sent under the name ‘IP Register UG’, closely resembling official fee invoices. The letterhead featured the designation "European IP Register", and the subject line highlighted "Data publication from Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM)” – the EUIPO’s former name. These misleading letters included a "total due" amount, a payment deadline and bank details. Only in small print, barely legible at the bottom of the letters, was the invoice described as a proposal.

Between November 2020 and April 2021, the defendants wrongfully received payments of approximately €200,000 from unsuspecting customers.

In this German case, the court convicted the defendants of commercial gang fraud, whereas in a similar case in Sweden, the defendants were convicted of gross fraud in 2017. These cases set legal examples for treating these schemes as criminal fraud.

Learn more on the EUIPO website.

U.S. Copyright Office broadens access to copyright information in Spanish

42 million people in the U.S.A. speak Spanish at home. Drawing on its core mission to “promote creativity and free expression . . . for the benefit of all,” the U.S. Copyright Office is inter alia dedicated to making the copyright system as understandable and accessible to as many members of the public as possible, including individuals and small entities as well as historically underserved communities. 

A key initiative under the "Copyright for All" strategic goal is the expansion of the Office’s Spanish language program, which consists of making a range of materials accessible to the Spanish-speaking community. To learn more, click here.