In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2024/01/never-too-late-if-you-missed-ipkat-last.html If you’ve been too busy sleeping off the New Year’s celebrations, here’s the summary of the IP news you missed last week. Patents and Plant Varieties Evidently, this Kat’s new year’s resolution was to take more naps! (Image from Pixabay) Henry P. Yang analysed the recent judgment in Optis... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2024/01/banksys-trade-marks-once-again-at.html A while ago, the IPKat reported [here, here, and here] on a number of cancellation actions directed at Banks’s EU trade mark (EUTM) registrations representing his artworks. In particular, in 2020, the Cancellation Division of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) declared an EUTM representing one of Banksy’s best... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2024/01/friday-fantasies.html New year, new IP opportunities and events The new year has just begun but there are already several news items, unfortunately including some sad ones, to report. Have a look below. Katnews We have two major news items we wish to share with our readers, one concerning the Team... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2024/01/will-we-have-referral-on-using.html PatKat awoke from her mince pie induced doze to the intriguing news that there may be another referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) waiting in the wings. This potential referral concerns the all important question of how much the description should be taken into account for claim... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-trade-mark-adventures-of-lara-croft.html The protection of fictional characters presents various challenges. Their external appearance can be protected by copyright, design, trade mark or unfair competition law, though there are limits. An obvious one is the duration of most IP rights. The US copyright for Winnie the Pooh expired in 2021 and it... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/12/sunday-surprises_31.html While you are getting your sequins ready for the NYE party, we bring some exciting IP news and opportunities to finish off the year. Image: flickr.com Katfood The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corp., et al. This week’s big IP news is the New York Times suing OpenAI... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/12/book-review-lepuisement-des-droits-de.html There is plenty of issues surrounding exhaustion of intellectual property rights, which are also the subject of numerous decisions [IPKat here, here or here]. This time, this Kat had the opportunity to review Pierre Heuzé’s published PhD thesis, written in French, titled “L’épuisement des droits de propriété intellectuelle sur un... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-royal-headache-for-eu-trade-mark.html In a recent decision (R 1729/2022-4) on the distinctiveness of individual parts of composite word marks, the EUIPO’s Fourth Board of Appeal (the Board) reversed a decision of the Opposition Division which had rejected an Italian individual’s EU trade mark application for ‘SUSSEX ROYAL’, despite finding that a significant part... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/12/optis-v-apple-trial-e-part-i-findings.html This is Trial E, one of the six related trials between Optis and Apple. Trials A – D are technical trials about the validity and/or essentiality of certain patents (the Judge in Trial E observed that the sample in these technical trials was too small to allow him to... Continue reading
In: The IPKat BLOG
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-lions-head-is-weak-trade-mark-says.html On 20 December 2023, the General Court (GC) issued its decision in the case T-564/2 regarding the registration of an EU figurative trade mark representing a lion’s head encircled by rings forming a chain in classes 14 and 25. Background On 23 November 2017, Pierre Balmain... Continue reading
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