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Intellectual Property UK
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April 10, 2024
EU Court Revives German Kitchen Biz's 'MH Cuisines' TM Hopes
A German kitchen specialist can proceed to registering its "MH Cuisines" trademark after persuading a European Union court on Wednesday to overturn an earlier ruling that consumers could confuse the sign with a rival's "MM Cuisines" logo.
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April 10, 2024
Petrochem Co. Can't Nix Vagisil Maker's TM For Teens
Combe International LLC can register the trademark "OMV! By Vagisil" after European officials ruled there was a "profound distance" between its feminine hygiene creams and the petrochemical products sold by a similarly named company.
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April 10, 2024
Door Handle Maker Grips Design Victory On Appeal
A Czech manufacturer won its appeal Wednesday to reinstate design protections for a door handle after a European court ruled that differences in the angles of the grip and neck were significant enough to merit protection.
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April 10, 2024
EUIPO Wrongly Skimmed Dairy Biz's 'Rebell' TM, Court Says
A European Union court has restored a dairy company's "Rebell" protection, ruling on Wednesday that intellectual property officials failed to explain why they narrowed the scope of the trademark for lack of use amid a beef company's protests.
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April 09, 2024
Chinese Co. Wants To Nix Abbott's 3D TM For Diabetes Tech
A group of Chinese companies hit back at Abbott's claims that they copied a 3D trademark for a continuous glucose monitoring device, arguing that the product's features shouldn't be protected in the first place.
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April 09, 2024
Canine Toilet Biz City Doggo Bites Back At Rival's TM Claim
A company that makes grass toilets for dogs has hit back at its competitor, after the rival business accused it of ripping off its natural pee patch featured on the BBC TV show "Dragons' Den."
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April 16, 2024
Freeths Hires Murgitroyd Atty As Patents Director
Freeths LLP has appointed a new director of patents with more than 16 years of experience advising clients such as Nokia and Rolls-Royce, marking the latest addition to the firm's growth strategy.
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April 09, 2024
Kigen, Thales Settle Dispute Over SIM Card Standard Patent
A U.K. tech company and a subsidiary of French electronic giant Thales Group have settled their dispute over fair licensing terms for standard-essential technology used to remotely activate SIM cards in mobile phones.
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April 09, 2024
Medical Device Maker Fights Kidney Stone Tech Patent Claim
A U.K. medical device maker has denied that its bladder stone-removing technology infringes a Chinese rival's patent for a similar-looking product, saying it will continue to put its devices on the market.
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April 09, 2024
Gaming Co. Fires Back In 'Burning Hot' TM Clash With Rival
A casino gaming business has hit back at a challenge to the validity of its "Mini Burning Hot" trademark, arguing that its rival is trying to relitigate earlier proceedings and alleging that the competitor's U.K. trademark protections are invalid.
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April 08, 2024
Nivea Wins 'KiiLTO' TM Spat Over Reputational Risks
Nivea brand owner Beiersdorf on Monday successfully opposed a Finnish chemical products manufacturer's trademark "KiiLTO Airi" after European officials found the mark likely to "tarnish" the skincare brand's reputation.
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April 08, 2024
Netherlands Top Court Says No Copyright In Balloon Filler
The Netherlands' top court rejected a product developer's bid to copyright its water balloon filler, "Bunch-O-Balloons," after finding that most of the inventor's decisions were technical rather than spurred by creativity.
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April 08, 2024
Ferrero Tastes Defeat In Nutella TM Opposition
Ferrero can't stop a man from registering a trademark for "Mozartella" after European officials ruled that buyers wouldn't confuse it with the Nutella chocolate brand, even though he used it to market chocolate spreads.
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April 08, 2024
Packaging Biz Seals EPO Win In Paper-Coating Patent Feud
A packaging company has fought off a rival's challenge to its patent for oil-resistant paper after persuading a European Patent Office appeals panel that the makeup of the binding material for its compound was inventive.
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April 08, 2024
Biotech Biz Sensorion Raises €15M From Existing Investors
French biotech firm Sensorion SA said Monday that it has raised €15 million ($16.2 million) through a share offering to existing institutional investors to fund its research and development until the end of 2025.
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April 05, 2024
Bayer Can't Block Generic Xarelto, And Has Patent Nixed
Bayer can't stop a French generic-drug maker from putting a cheaper version of its blockbuster blood thinner Xarelto on pharmacy shelves, after a French court nixed its dosage patent.
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April 05, 2024
Edwards Gets EPO To Nix Abbott Unit's Heart Valve Patent
Edwards Lifesciences has persuaded a European Patent Office appeals panel to block an Abbott unit's prosthetic heart valve patent application, after proving that the design was not new.
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April 05, 2024
Amazon Cloud Computing Patent Powered Down On Appeal
Amazon has lost its fight to patent a method of pre-launching cloud computing services, with a European patent authority appeals board concluding that the invention did not take an inventive step beyond existing technology.
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April 05, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen the BBC sued by former Georgian defense minister David Kezerashvili, Russian businessman Ildar Sharipov file a defamation claim against the publisher of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, MEX Group Worldwide sue Barclays and NatWest, and a climbing gear company hit retailer Next with a claim of copyright infringement. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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April 05, 2024
Counterfeiters Flourish In Wake Of COVID, IP Body Says
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a global uptick in the trade of counterfeit goods, beginning with fake healthcare products but spreading to other areas of trade as virtually all shopping moved online, a new report found Friday.
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April 05, 2024
3 Questions For Mishcon's David Rose And Jeremy Hertzog
Clients look for many skills in intellectual property lawyers, but scientific expertise is not necessarily one of them, according to David Rose of Mishcon de Reya. Here, Rose and his colleague Jeremy Hertzog talk IP with Law360.
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April 04, 2024
Getty Says Stability AI Plays 'Active Role' In Making AI Images
Stock images giant Getty Images has clapped back at the makers of the popular Stable Diffusion software in the companies' U.K. copyright dispute, saying Stability AI cannot claim that any potentially infringing image the generative AI model creates is due to the user's input alone.
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April 04, 2024
Henkel Loses Bid To Sweep Away Rival's Cleaning TM
A Romanian cleaning product company has won its trademark appeal for its "Clinium" logo, after a European appellate board found that buyers would not conflate the sign with German rival Henkel's "Clin" trademark.
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April 04, 2024
Juul Can't Dodge UPC Vape Feud Over Rival's Admin Error
Juul can't dash a challenge to five of its vaping patents even though its rival NJOY listed the wrong company in its initial papers, an appeals panel has said, giving the competing company the green light to tweak its claim.
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April 04, 2024
Velcro-Selling Co. Sues Rival Over Amazon Complaints
A Northern Irish Velcro product distributor has accused a rival of spreading false rumors about its goods and putting the company in Amazon's bad books by returning several purchases and claiming they were "inauthentic."
Expert Analysis
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Myriad Ruling Vs. Biotech Patent Eligibility In Europe
After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics Inc., practitioners need to ensure that clients’ patent applications are drafted and prosecuted in a way that valuable claims are still obtained in the U.S. while also taking into account the nuances of European biotechnology patent law, say Thomas Haag and Christian Kilger of Fanelli Haag & Kilger PLLC.
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PPH 2.0 Offers Ways To Reduce Prosecution Time And Costs
Recent changes in the Patent Prosecution Highway open up new filing strategies for U.S. inventors who want expedited examination without the costs of Track 1 prioritized examination or who want greater flexibility and lower costs when building international patent portfolios, say attorneys with Foley & Lardner LLP.
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The Patent Box — Unlocking The Potential In UK R&D
The recent introduction of the U.K.'s “patent box” — an initiative to drive down corporation tax for innovative and high-tech companies in the U.K. — should be of interest to companies and multinationals with, or considering acquiring, significant U.K. research and development and other technology-focused development operations, say Arun Birla and Ross McNaughton of Paul Hastings LLP.
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Should You Use A Patent Practitioner Or Litigator For IPR?
Conflicting opinions have been expressed as to whether an experienced “litigator” or an experienced “patent practitioner” is more suited to handling an inter partes review trial before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. A patent practitioner, particularly one with considerable inter partes experience within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, will usually be the best choice, says Gerald M. Murphy of Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch LLP.
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Italian Court's Google Decision: A Significant Precedent
The appellate court in Milan recently published its decision overturning the conviction of three Google Inc. executives for allowing video depicting the bullying of an autistic teenager to be uploaded to the Italian Google Video website. The opinion reduces the potential burdens facing content-hosting providers and other similar Internet companies, say attorneys with Jones Day.
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How The EU Patent Court Will Protect Against Trolls
Many commentators in Europe have worried that the Unified Patent Court will support campaigns of meritless patent litigation comparable to those high-tech companies have seen in the U.S. However, a closer look at the proposed UPC agreement reveals that significant procedural and structural safeguards have been built into the court system to prevent this type of abuse, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.
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Advantages Of Registering A Unitary European Patent
Any inventor can now introduce an application for a unitary European patent that guarantees a uniform protection and produces identical effects in the 25 states concerned. Since this new unitary patent system establishes a unique annual tax and does not require translations of the application into each national language, the cost of the patent will be drastically reduced, say Paul Van den Bulck and Evelina Roegiers of McGuireWoods LLP.
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Inequitable Conduct: Rethinking 'Egregious Misconduct'
The Federal Circuit's decision in Outside the Box Innovations LLC v. Travel Caddy Inc., alone and collectively with the Federal Circuit's decision in Powell v. The Home Depot Inc., offers some much-needed insight as to the utility and applicability of per se material conduct. But with neither case yielding an affirmative finding of inequitable conduct, the egregious misconduct argument is the pinch hitter who has struck out twice in the batter’s box, say attorneys with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
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How The EU's New Unitary Patent System Will Work
After debating the single patent issue on and off for 40 years, the European Union is on track to complete approval of a package of proposals on Dec. 21, 2012, to create unitary patents for most of the EU and a unified patent court system. As a result, potentially lower cost patent protection and enforcement could be available throughout most of the EU as soon as April 2014, say Frank Peterreins and John Pegram of Fish & Richardson PC.
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A European Patent Office Tool That Deserves Another Look
Well-crafted European Patent Office third-party observations can be highly valuable weapons in the battle for freedom-to-operate. In some circumstances, they can also be readily coordinated with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office submissions to challenge patent claims in both jurisdictions, say Martin Hyden and Elizabeth Doherty of Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP.
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A Therapy For European Patent Term Extensions
In its recent ruling in Neurim Pharmaceuticals Ltd v. Comptroller-General of Patents, the European Court of Justice significantly liberalized the current practice for granting supplementary protection certificates, reducing the limitations imposed on the grant or duration of SPCs by earlier marketing authorizations for the same active pharmaceutical ingredient, say attorneys with Jones Day.
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Patentability Of Business Methods — A Global Comparison
Attempts to push for business methods to be covered by patent protection have met with varying degrees of success worldwide. A comparative analysis of the leading cases in the U.S., U.K., EU, China and Hong Kong brings clarification to this complicated and evolving area of law, say Michael Geoffrey, Steven Birt and Ian Buckley of Reed Smith LLP.
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Aftershocks From The AIA: A Seismic Shift In Patent Law?
The America Invents Act's new joinder provisions are already affecting the behavior of patent litigants. And while the AIA's most important changes have not yet taken effect, intellectual property attorneys are already strategically analyzing some of the potential future effects, say Sasha Rao and Daniel Keese of Ropes & Gray LLP.
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The Global Reach Of Stem Cell Research Patents
Under current law, human embryonic stem cells, parthenogenetic stem cells, and methods of making or using such cells are patentable in the U.S., but not in the European Union. This difference may require research institutions and companies to re-examine their regulatory and commercial strategies for intellectual property on a jurisdictional basis, say attorneys with DLA Piper.
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2 PCT Written Opinions For The Price Of 1
The European Patent Office's new procedures provide certainty relating to additional examination opportunities that are available when the EPO is the International Preliminary Examining Authority, which raises several strategy questions for Patent Cooperation Treaty applicants, says Stuart Schanbacher of Condo Roccia LLP.