Last week was the busiest in the IPKat's history, with a total of 29 blogposts. We're all a bit exhausted and expect that our readers are too. Thanks so much for sticking with us during this fascinating but definitely difficult period in the history of intellectual property governance. Anyway, sweet and cheerful as ever, Katfriend and superstar Alberto has put together the following list of last week's posts that you would have missed if you away and may even have missed if you weren't. This is what he delivers:
* More misinformation on the Unified Patent Court - this time from the Law Society of Scotland
“Time is running out to secure new Scottish patent court!”, warns a press release by the Law Society of Scotland. Not quite so, replies an annoyed Darren.
* Breaking News: Enlarged Board appeals - direct to the Administrative Council
The suspension of a Board of Appeal member by the EPO President, under the guise of a "house ban", reported here, has generated enormous disquiet. Now, Merpel reports on an unprecedented letter in which the Enlarged Board members express their concerns about the turn of events. Seventy two comments so far give the idea of how much the IPKat’s readers are getting passionate to this story.
* The chorus swells - another entreaty to the AC about Battistelli
Merpel recounts of another letter upon the hot issue of the suspension of a Board of Appeal, this time from Dr Tilman Müller-Stoy. The letter's author is a well-known litigator and is a partner in the renowned German firm of Bardehle Pagenberg. The addressee is Christoph Ernst, head of Germany's delegation to the EPO's Administrative Council.
* Leading European IP Judges join the chorus of condemnation
Merpel reports that a further letter has been sent to the AC by two highly respected IP judges from the UK and the Netherlands. This letter references the earlier letter from the Enlarged Board of Appeal members and expresses support for the position taken. The saga continues…
* Six more judges criticise Battistelli's actions
The chorus of condemnation (discussed also here andhere) about the "house ban" of an Appeal Board member continues to grow. After the news of two of Europe's leading judges lending their support to the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal (who have asked the EPO's Administrative Council to curb the interference by the President in their work), further support arrives from additional national IP judges, all of whom also serve as external members of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, explains Merpel
* BREAKING NEWS: EPO Communique -- Boards of Appeal "independent in principle"; "precautionary" suspension approved; concern "expressed"
For the many fans of the King of Eponia v house-banned BoA Member saga, here's the text of the communique issued on Friday on the European Patent Office website. The 138 comments so far that have welcomed this post are the best prove of readers' affection to this story and to the way Merpel recounts it.
* Pay it again scam
The previous week's Tuesday Tiddlywinks included an example of a renewal scam letter purportedly coming from OHIM. It was a communication of the kind which savvy applicants and their advisors are all too aware, but which are targeted at smaller and less experienced applicants who may only have one or a few IP rights. Regrettably, the scam phenomenon is not exclusive to trade marks and designs, explains David in this post, after receiving a message from the mysterious “European Patent Organization”.
* Hurray for judicial sense on product by process claims- Birss triumphs in Hospira v Genentech
This note from Darren is about Hospira v Genentech [on which see the IPKat note here], a pharma-patent case that Mr Justice Birss has decided in light of product-by-process claims. Beyond the case itself, Darren seizes the chance to provide a lovely comparative piece upon how product-by-process works in the UK, in the US and in Eponia.
* Google announces end of News in Spain
A few weeks ago, Spain introduced an ancillary right over news content. Unlike the German right, the right cannot be waived and requires those who wish to display non-insignificant excerpts to pay a licence fee. “Adios!”, says Google News, as Eleonora recounts in this note.
* Catch-up with Caoutchouc as Dalsouples clash in court
Perhaps not all know that under EU and UK law a later sign identical or confusingly similar to an earlier trade mark could be registered if the owner of the latter consents so -- which is quite telling as to the function of trade marks, debatedsome time ago on the IPKat. This is the proper core of Dalsouple Société Saumuroise Du Caoutchouc v Dalsouple Direct Ltd & Another [2014] EWHC 3963 (Ch), a First of December ruling by Mr Justice Arnold in the Chancery Division of the High Court, England and Wales that Jeremy reports in this post.
* Badly behaved politicians, Parliamentary Pirates and a point of copyright principle
Amelia Andersdotter, a Swedish politician and former Swedish Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament, drops Merpel a line asking the most famous IP cat of the IP blogosphere's thoughts about a sad, sad story concerning another politician caught on picture in an inopportune situation and using copyright to halt the picture spreading on the press. How bizarre, sniffs Merpel, calling for Swedish Katfriends' help.
* More on Product-by-Process claims - what is the law, why is it, and what should it be?
After his earlier post on Hospira v Genentech [on which see also the IPKat earlier note here], Darren provides a catch-up summarizing the large number of comments and the debate that it has generated. In Darren's best and most glorious style, this is another masterpiece both for the patent-addicted and for those that are not really into it, which will have the chance to benefit from Darren's clean prose and always surprising way to make complicated things seem easy.
* Comments, censorship and editorial balance
As readers know, this blog does not refuse to post comments with which the IPKat and Merpel disagree. There are some rules to build up a decent discussion though, Jeremy recalls.
* The Battle of Trumpton: parody, or protection of kippers?
KatfriendSabine Jacques (a PhD student focusing on the parody exception at the School of Law, University of Nottingham) recounts the funny story of MEP Nigel Farage's ('like garage', he uses to say) United Kingdom Independence Party – UKIP threatening to sue a guy for trade mark infringement [even though there is no indication that UKIP has registered its name as a trade mark] after he created UKIP_Trumpton, a Twitter account which aims to ‘gently take the mickey out of UKIP’. What's Trumpton? What's UKIP? Find it out in the Sabine's post!
* Oracle v Google: are certain elements of the Java platform entitled to copyright protection?
Fellow blogger, tweeter and IP enthusiast Thomas Dubuissontells us about a larger than life dispute between Google and Oracle that is rumbling through the courts in the US. The main question at issue is whether Google infringed Oracle’s patents and copyrights by copying Oracle-owned Java APIs in Android (Google’s mobile operating system) without authorization, but many spicy issues are at stake: a smartphone IP dispute between two tech giants, a lot of money, a potential fair use exception, and copyright law in the computer context.
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When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights Special
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"When Trademarks Overlap with Other IP Rights" is the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) European winter conference that took place last week in the lovely city of Munich. The conference, co-chaired by its architects Neil J. Wilkof and Axel Nordemann, comes out from the inspiring Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights, edited by Neil and Shamnad Bashir [published by OUP and noted by the IPKat here] published some time ago. Jeremy has rigorously reported all the event’s speeches in a series of 10 dedicated posts to make the IPKat’s readers feel like if they were there.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 1
This first note reports of Etienne Sanz de Acedo’s (INTA Chief Executive Officer) opening greetings and of blogmaister Jeremy’s opening speech entitled "Overlaid, Overlegislated and Overloaded", where he explains what IP overlap means, where it comes from and where it is leading us.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 2
The first session, "Trademark and Copyrights", was chaired by former guest Kat Tara Aaron. First to speak was Professor Ansgar Ohly, who gave a breath-taking account of conflicts between trade marks and the public domain, also reviewing the extent to which copyright might vest in trade marks. Axel Nordemann spoke next, considering priority, registration of public domain works as trade marks and the problem of book titles mainly under an EU standpoint. Moving to Latin America, the floor was taken by Barbarita Guzmán, who focused on interaction between trade marks and copyright -- also considering the ‘moral rights’ issue in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. The fourth speaker was Andrew P. Bridges, who explained the US situation when it comes to trademark and copyright overlapping.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 3
In the panel discussion that followed, Michael Ritscher (Meyerlustenberger Lachenal), Max Kinkelday (Gruneker), and Andrew Bridges keep debating of overlap between trade marks and copyright. The panellists addressed many issues, like different costs connected to those two IP rights, trade mark’s incontestability, protectability, functionality of protectable subject, peculiarities of those two IPRs' scopes of protection, enforcement, evidence, and defences under EU and US perspectives.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 4
The next session focused on the "Trademarks and Designs" overlap. Katfriend and internationally respected scholar Annette Kuropened the discussion, analysing the Court of Justice of the European Union cornerstone decisions on this issue and posing a crucial question: are we really sure that double protection constitutes a problem? A bit of institutional perspective was then provided by Grégoire Bisson(WIPO) and Theophile Margellos (Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market), who addressed the issues connected with double-registration of a sign as trade mark and design in their respective Offices’ practices.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 5
Always upon trade mark and design overlapping, Mark Owen(Taylor Wessing) took over the chair and introduced Kenneth Wilton (Seyfarth Shaw LLP), who gave an explanation of trade dress and product configuration in the United States. Then came Anna Carboni (Redd solicitors), who spoke about the hypothetical "2JuicyLucy (t/a 2Juice) v DoubleJuice, Inc" dispute, highlighting the salient issues relating to Community trade mark and Community design protection, infringement, and jurisdiction. Daniel Greif (Siam Premier International, Thailand) then spoke about the design/trade mark divide in the Asia Pacific zone. The final speaker of the day was Louis Vuitton's Valerie Sonnier, who talked from the point of view of a lawyer whose employer was in business to make money and who was engaged in trying to stamp out criminal organisations which make and sell counterfeits.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 6
The opening session of Day Two addressed "Trademarks and Geographical Indications". Keri Johnston was the first to speak, giving a report on INTA's involvement on GIs and indigenous rights internationally, regionally and nationally on these sensitive issues. Irene Calboli(Marquette University Law School and National University of Singapore) was the next speaker to take the floor. She reflected upon the overlap between GIs and trade marks being qualitatively different from that between trade marks and copyright or designs, also addressing that issue under an international perspective. Julia Holden(Trevisan & Cuonzo, Italy) spoke next and focused on the legal situation in the European Union. Peter Harvey (Harvey Siskind LLP) came next, explaining the position in the United States. Latha Nair (K & S Partners, India) was unfortunately unable to attend on account of illness, but her talk about the situation in India was enjoyed via an online link.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 7
The session entitled "Trademarks and Unfair Competition", moderated by Axel Nordemann, was opened by Katfriend Professor Anselm Kamperman Sanders, who gave a masterly overview of the conception, birth and early years of the concept of unfair competition from even before the creation of the European common market. Next to speak was Gordian Hasselblatt (CMS Hasche Sigle), who discussed the "protective purpose" of trade marks and their relation to principles of unfair competition. Fellow Kat Neil was next to speak, looking at the common law (US and English) position on unfair competition. The last to speak was Myrtha Hurtado Rivas (Novartis AG), who gave a strategic overview of the trade mark v unfair competition position from the standpoint of a business that had to make decisions as to how -- and where -- to enforce its rights and protect its interests in the Europe of today-- and beyond.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 8
The following session saw something of a novelty act: an interview by INTA stalwart Ronald van Tuijl (JT International) with Christoph Ernst (Ministerialdirigent, German Federal Ministry of Justice, left) and Mihaly Ficsor (Vice-President for Legal Affairs, Hungarian IP Office). Billed under the heading "Trademarks and Patents", this session went somewhat wider -- without adding anything on the interface between trade marks and patents.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 9
The final stretch of Day Two of INTA's European winter conference addressed the topic "Trademarks and the Right of Publicity" and was moderated by Kenneth Wilton (Seyfarth Shaw JJP). First up was Anne Lauber-Rönsberg (Technical University of Dresden), who gave a presentation on the development of publicity rights under US and German law with special reference to the towering personality of Marlene Dietrich. Mark Owen (Taylor Wessing LLP) then spoke on publicity rights in the United Kingdom -- and the legendary Guernsey. Tara Aaron (Aaron Sanders PLLC) then addressed the unique position of the United States, reviewing some fun cases involving Manuel Noriega [Katpost here] and Lindsay Lohan [Katpost here]. Mario Soerensen Garcia finally (Soerensen Garcia Advogados Associados) took over, giving a beautifully Brazilian account of overlap.
* When Trademarks Overlap With Other IP Rights: conference report 10
The final session of the INTA's two-day conference marathon continued the theme of the previous session, but looked at the trade mark/publicity overlap from the perspective of some trade mark owners which rely on taking licences from well known celebrities and sportsmen: Joseph J. Conklin (Coty) and Alexander Ballasch (DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga GmbH). The grand finale to this event was an address by Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) President Antonio Campinos, who spoke about trialogue discussions and the various governance issues concerning OHIM, including its rebranding.
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PREVIOUSLY, ON NEVER TOO LATE
Never too late 22 [week ending Sunday 7 December] -- VOLVO v LOVOL, EU General Court goes Freudian | Oral Hearing on the 17th Draft of the UPC Rules of Procedure | Trolls owing essential patents in Vringo Infrastructure v ZTE | The importance of being Uber before Uber | Merpel and the EPO strike | An Arnoldian paten ruling in Idenix Pharmaceutical v Gilead Sciences | Audit clauses in IP licences | EPO Board of Appeal Member suspended | AG Villalón tells his stake on distribution right and offer for sale in Case C-516/13 Dimensione Direct Sales and Labianca | Post-mortem moral rights in Poland | Second Circuit hears argument in Authors Guild v.Google fair use case | EPO and the Swiss-cheese approach in decision <