Never Too Late: If you missed The IPKat last week

Pre-Christmas sleep

GuestKat Thomas Key explored the IP implications behind the confrontation between Netflix and Dave Chappelle, a stand-up comedian who rose to fame with his “Chappelle’s Show” in early 2000s. Chappelle has recently urged his fans to boycott his show on Netflix, expressing his disagreement with the fact that the rights to his show have been licensed to Netflix by the original owner, Comedy Central, without any additional payments. 

SpecialKat Hayleigh Bosher prepared an overview of the responses to the UK’s government inquiry on the impact of music streaming on artists, record labels and the sustainability of the wider music industry. The answers covered issues such as streaming royalties, lack of transparency in the deals between labels and streaming platforms, and the earnings of playlisters. Hayleigh then followed with her reflections as to whether copyright law is performing its job in the music industry; namely disseminating creativity and remunerating creators of music copyright. 

GuestKat Nedim Malovic commented on the CJEU judgment in Ferrari SpA v DU, C–720/18 and C–721/18 concerning the scope of ‘genuine use’ in trade mark law. Ruling on a request for a preliminary ruling from Germany, the Court of Justice has confirmed that the resale of vehicles and replacement parts thereof amount to genuine use of a trade mark. 

Kat Friends Beatrice Wee and Hong Qibin examined the approach taken by the Singapore Court of Appeal to the issue of liability of an intermediary (in this case, a freight forwarder) for trade mark infringement. The Court departed from earlier caselaw on the matter, which had viewed as irrelevant a person’s knowledge with respect to liability for trade mark infringement.. 

Neil Wilkof shared his thoughts regarding an overlooked issue in the wake of Brexit, the territorial scope of trade mark licenses. Will a license agreement, designating “the countries of the European Union”, be considered to also cover the United Kingdom? Neil addresses several scenarios, depending upon the date when the agreement was executed. 

The IPKat continues to inform pre-EQE and EQE-candidates on the EQE 2021 exam, this time about the use of screen breaks and upload time to continue writing the exam. GuestKat Rose Hughes commented on the recent statement issued by the PEB in this regard. 

GuestKat Riana Harvey prepared an event report on this year’s Stockholm IP Law Review annual conference. The conference, titled “IP in the Digital Environment”, featured speaker, including Lord Justice Arnold and PermaKat Eleonora Rosati, and covered such topics as website blocking injunctions and the direct liability of platforms in IP cases. 

The IPKat Book of the Year Awards 2020 is now open for voting. Be sure to cast your vote before 30th December for your favourite IP books in five categories.This Kat has already voted for hers! 

Kat Friends Bernt Hugenholtz, João Pedro Quintais, and Daniel Gervais presented the conclusions of their recent study on ‘Trends and Developments in Artificial Intelligence: Challenges to the Intellectual Property Rights Framework’, which was published late November. The study includes two parts: an assessment of the state-of-the-art uses of AI in science, media, and pharmaceutical research, and a legal analysis of European patent and copyright law as applied to AI-assisted outputs. 

Kat Friend Julia Hugendubel addressed the most recent developments in the WIPO BlockchainInitiative. As part of the Blockchain Task Force, WIPO is currently studying how blockchain technology may be applied in national IP offices, including the possibility of using a blockchain-based IP registry. 

Never Too Late 294 [Week ending December 6] Australian High Court overturns 150 years of precedent to adopt exhaustion of rights doctrine for patented products | EQE 2021: Further details on examination timings and paper format released | IFIM Holiday Seminar – Tales of the New Doctors of Law | Is it time to move on from the AI inventor debate? | Wondering how to draft an order for a website blocking injunction? Read the Matchroom Boxing Limited Case | “The Queen’s Gambit”, “Emma” and the changing dynamics of content creation, distribution and star power 

Never Too Late 293 [Week ending November 29] TPM circumvention and website blocking orders: An EU perspective | [BREAKING] Düsseldorf court refers questions on component-level SEP licensing to CJEU in Nokia/Daimler | The fate of UK SPCs in the Brexit era | Guest book review: Patent Management | When goodwill in the business is not enough: clarifying the role of the trademark in a passing off action | [Guest post] European Commission unveils new IP Action Plan