Never Too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week

Although a lot of activities around the globe came to a halt, IP definitely did not! Make yourself a cup of tea and catch-up on last week’s IP news. 

The German constitutional court upholds complaint against UPC Agreement and implementing act!  Read the decision here. It is reported that this decision will set the UPC back 5 years! The main reason for the decision was that the act by which Germany was to ratify the UPC Agreement, was not passed with the required parliamentary majority. Léon Dijkman provided a detailed analysis of the decision by the German constitutional court.

For the first time since the enactment of Israel’s Patent Law in 1967, the Government of Israel has exercised its authority under sections 104-105 of the Act. The Government issued a precedential permit for the use of three Israeli patents covering the antiretroviral drug, “KALETRA”. This allows for importation of quantities of a generic version of the drug for use in the treatment of patients suffering from the COVID-19 virus. Neil Wilkof discussed the decision here. 

Bad faith in connection with the right to registration of a trade mark is not new. However, what is the effect of a co-existence agreement when determining bad faith in an opposition action? This question is answered in Teraoka Seiko Co., Ltd v Digi International Inc. [2020] SGIPOS 1. Neil Wilkof provided a summary of the case. 

The interesting subject of counteraction of phonetic and visual similarity by conceptual differences in trade mark law came under the microscope in C-328/18 P Black Label byEquivalenza. Léon Dijkman reported on the Court of Justice of the European Union’s decision. 

In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, universities across the globe need to shift to online learning. There are concerns that IP law, particularly, copyright law, may pose a challenge to online teaching and learning. In certain jurisdictions, a fair dealing exception determines the use of copyright-protected educational materials online. Chijioke Okorie discussed the fair dealing exception in South Africa. 

“Innovation” is one of the most important concepts for anyone in the IP industry. But what about “disruptive innovation”? Disruptive innovation, which grabbed the strategic jugular of corporate leaders, had been developed in a 1997 book “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail” by Clayton Christensen. Neil Wilkof took us down memory lane with his discussion on Clayton Christensen.