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Intellectual Property UK
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June 20, 2024
Targus Loses Appeal Over Too 'Laudatory' Ecosmart TM
Computer accessory company Targus cannot register "Ecosmart" as a trademark, after an appeals board at the European Union intellectual property office held that the phrase was too laudatory to warrant protection.
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June 19, 2024
Stripe Seeks To Revoke ATM Network's TMs
Stripe has urged a court to revoke trademarks owned by the main ATM network in the U.K., which accused the online payment processor of infringement and hijacking its reputation by using the "Link" name for a payment service.
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June 19, 2024
Robotic Drug Patent Beats Novo Nordisk's EPO Challenge
A U.S. pharmaceutical company has beaten a challenge brought by a Danish rival to its patent for a type of robotic pill, convincing officials at the European patent office that it has invented a new method for administering medication.
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June 19, 2024
Swedish Sportswear Co. Loses Bid To Block Fashion TM
A Swedish sports clothing company has lost its appeal against Italian fashion outlet company Take Off's trademark, as Europe's intellectual property watchdog said it had failed to prove genuine use of its version of the logo.
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June 19, 2024
Gaming Execs Deny Copying Ex-Firm's Code For New Game
Two former directors of an online gambling company have denied its claim that they plagiarized copyrighted source code for its "Slingo" online betting game to produce several competing products through the rival business they joined.
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June 19, 2024
Coinbase Loses Bid For EU Trademark Resembling Letter 'C'
Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase failed to persuade a European court to upend an intellectual property office ruling that rejected its figurative trademark for a shape resembling the letter "C" as the court backed the ruling that the application lacked distinctive character.
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June 18, 2024
Garden Screen Co. Says Rival Ripped Off Its Unique Designs
The owners of a line of allegedly unique garden screens have sued a rival in London court for supposedly copying the designs, which the owners argue are protected by copyright.
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June 18, 2024
Ex-Yukos Oil Investors Auction Russian Vodka TMs For €1.6M
The former shareholders of Yukos Oil Co. said Monday they have auctioned the Benelux rights to trademarks for 18 Russian vodka brands, including Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya, as they continue their effort to enforce $50 billion in arbitral awards against Russia.
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June 18, 2024
IT Co. Has 'Vizst' TM Revoked Over Confusion Risks
A 3D graphics creator used by BBC and Sky has won its fight to block technology competitor Vizst Technology Ltd. from registering its "Vizst Technology" branding in the U.K., after a British intellectual property authority found consumers would likely confuse it with another brand.
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June 18, 2024
Visual Aid Tech Biz Wins EPO Appeal For Portable Magnifier
A maker of electronic magnifiers for the visually impaired has convinced a European Union appellate board that its patent for a travel-friendly magnifying device was an invention.
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June 18, 2024
Samsung Bioepis Denies Infringing Blood Treatment Patent
Samsung Bioepis has fought back against a bid by Alexion to prevent it from selling a biosimilar version of a patented blood treatment drug by a rival, telling a court that this will not infringe the protections of an AstraZeneca subsidiary over the medicine.
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June 17, 2024
Huawei Slams Netgear's 'Tenuous' RICO Case
Huawei has responded to a racketeering and antitrust case from a major U.S. maker of Wi-Fi routers by calling it "rife with tenuous legal and factual claims" and comparing its reworking of patent infringement allegations to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's failed antitrust case against Qualcomm.
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June 24, 2024
Leading Blockchain Lawyer Joins Lawrence Stephens
Lawrence Stephens Ltd. has hired a litigator with expertise in blockchain technology and digital assets from Shoosmiths amid growing demand from clients for advice on cryptocurrency asset recoveries and all other issues associated with emerging technologies.
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June 17, 2024
Supplements Biz Loses Appeal For 'Biogena Moments' TM
A maker of food supplements has lost its bid to register its "Biogena Moments" trademark after an appellate panel at the European Union's intellectual property authority found the brand was not recognizable enough to set it apart from a rival's products.
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June 17, 2024
Tech Co. Loses Bid For Automatic Payments Patent In UK
A payments software company cannot protect its automatic payments system with a patent in the U.K. because it relates solely to a method of doing business, intellectual property officials have ruled.
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June 17, 2024
Nestlé Can't Nix Patent For Milk Allergy-Prevention Formula
Nestlé has failed in its bid to nix a rival's patent for a supplement to help prevent dietary protein allergies after European officials ruled that an amendment restricting its effects to milk proteins made it worthy of protection.
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June 17, 2024
Fintech Biz Beats 'Scrypto' TM Challenge At UKIPO
A fintech company has kept hold of its "Scrypto" trademarks in the U.K. after intellectual property officials ruled that the word is not a "customary" computer programming term.
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June 14, 2024
Meta Halts AI Tech Debut In EU After Regulatory Backlash
Meta Platforms Inc. said Friday that it was putting on hold plans to expand its artificial intelligence offerings to the European market after the Irish privacy regulator raised concerns about the company's efforts to use public content posted on Facebook and Instagram to fuel these models.
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June 14, 2024
Top Court To Face Tough IP Questions On Post-Kitchin Bench
The appellate courts will continue to be plagued by tough questions about intellectual property law unless Parliament intervenes after the election, experts told Law360, as artificial intelligence and complex questions about technology and ownership of inventions continue to percolate up towards the top courts.
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June 14, 2024
CMS Blunder Costs Nestlé Its 'Crunch' TM In The UK
Nestlé has lost its "Crunch" trademark protection in the U.K. after officials ruled the company's lawyers at CMS had no valid excuse for filing a key document late.
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June 14, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen toy company Jellycat hit supermarket Aldi with an intellectual property claim, AIG start proceedings against firefighting foam company Angus International Safety Group, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority file a legal claim against the Post Office amid the ongoing Horizon IT scandal. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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June 14, 2024
EasyGroup Says Charity Platform Website Breached Its TM
The parent group of the easyJet budget airline said on the first day of trial Friday that an online fundraising platform for charities' use of "easy" at the start of its name could lead customers to confuse it with EasyGroup Ltd. 's trademark.
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June 14, 2024
Bitcoin 'Inventor' Drops Case Against Software Developers
Lawyers for the man who failed to prove he invented bitcoin told a London court on Friday that he has dropped a case brought by his company against software developers as it also turned on his claim to be the pseudonymous inventor of the virtual currency.
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June 13, 2024
Labour, Tories Tout AI Innovation While Skirting IP Concerns
Both major parties have vowed in their election manifestos to position the U.K. at the forefront of artificial intelligence development and to use the technology to bolster public services, but they largely ignored complaints that developers have run roughshod over intellectual property rights.
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June 13, 2024
Shakespeare Martineau-Led Armor Biz Buys Rival's IP Assets
A Shakespeare Martineau LLP-led armor manufacturer has secured a rival company's intellectual property portfolio after it entered administration earlier this year, the law firm said Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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EPO Decision Significantly Relaxes Patent Priority Approach
In a welcome development for patent applicants, a recent European Patent Office decision redefines the way that entitlement to priority is assessed, significantly relaxing the previous approach and making challenges to the right to priority in post-grant opposition proceedings far more difficult, say lawyers at Finnegan.
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Why US Should Help European Efforts To Fix SEP Licensing
The European Commission's proposed reform of standard-essential patent licensing aims to fix a fundamental problem stemming from the asymmetry and obscurity of information about SEPs, and U.S. agencies exploring regulation of foreign regimes should support and improve these efforts, say David McAdams at Duke University and David Katz at WilmerHale.
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Shifting From Technical To Clear Insurance Contract Wordings
Recent developments on insurance policies, including the Financial Conduct Authority's new consumer duty, represent a major shift for insurers and highlight the importance of drafting policies that actively improve understanding, rather than shift the onus onto the end user, say Tamsin Hyland and Jonathan Charwat at RPC.
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What's In The Plan To Boost Germany's Commercial Litigation
Lawyers at Cleary discuss Germany's recent draft bill, which establishes commercial courts and introduces English as a court language in civil proceedings, and analyze whether it accomplishes the country's goal of becoming a more attractive venue for commercial litigation.
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Bitcoin Case Highlights Advanced Age Of UK's IP Law
An appellate court's recent decision in a case involving the copyright of bitcoin's file format emphasizes the role of copyright protection in software, and also the challenges of applying decades-old laws to new technologies, say Marianna Foerg and Ben Bell at Potter Clarkson.
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Future Paths For AI Inventorship After Justices' Thaler Denial
Anup Iyer at Moore & Van Allen examines the current and future state of AI inventorship in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to hear Thaler v. Vidal, including collaboration, international challenges, and the need for closer examination in research and development-intensive sectors.
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EU Ruling Highlights Strategic Benefits Of Patent Appeals
The European Patent Office board of appeal recently reversed the examining board's ruling in an application by LG Electronics, highlighting how applicants struggling to escape conflicting objection traps at the examination level can improve their chances of a positive outcome with an appeal, says Andrew Rudhall at Haseltine Lake.
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Series
In A 'Barbie' World: Boosting IP Value With Publicity Machines
Mattel's history of intellectual property monitoring, including its recent challenge against Burberry over the "BRBY" trademark ahead of the "Barbie" film, shows how IP enforcement strategies can be used as publicity to increase brand value and inform potential collaborations, says Carly Duckett at Shepherd and Wedderburn.
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UPC Revocation Actions Offer An Attractive Patent Strategy
As the Unified Patent Court gains momentum after an initial period of nervousness around the recently launched forum, more businesses may be starting to realize the value of running revocation actions as an alternative route to knocking out patents across Europe, say Oliver Laing and Georgia Carr at Potter Clarkson.
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5 Takeaways For Litigants From Early EU Patent Court Ruling
One of the first Unified Patent Court ex parte preliminary injunctions was recently granted in myStromer v. Revolt Zycling, demonstrating the court's ability to decide cases extremely quickly, but parties should be careful in phrasing their motions and sufficiently substantiating them to achieve the desired result, says Antje Brambrink at Finnegan.
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Copyright Cheat Sheet: Finding Substantially Similar Songs
Using the recent copyright infringement case against Ed Sheeran over his hit song "Thinking Out Loud" as a case study, forensic musicologist Ethan Lustig provides an overview for attorneys of which musical elements do and do not, when altered, create the sense of a new or distinct composition — a determination increasingly sought from experts in court.
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Barbie Deals Should Remind Brands Of IP Licensing Benefits
Mattel Inc.'s recent licensing of the Barbie trademark — one of the biggest licensing campaigns of recent history — illustrates that, as long as risks are managed properly, intellectual property licensing can form part of the overall business strategy and benefit both parties, say Maria Peyman and Anousha Vasantha at Birketts.
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Lessons On Cricket Patent History And IP Protection At UPC
On the heels of the creation of the Unified Patent Court in Europe, Susan Bradley at Marks & Clerk looks at how its development is interwoven with the history of cricket, and why inventors in that field have always taken advantage of the latest developments in intellectual property protection.
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Factors To Consider In Protecting Software With Trade Secrets
With trade secrets protecting subject matter that would not otherwise be eligible for a patent now a mainstay of many multinationals’ intellectual property strategies, software developers have a number of considerations in deciding whether this is a viable alternative to protect their invention, says Dave Clark at Potter Clarkson.
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A Look At US Injunctive Relief Trends Amid UPC Chatter
While much remains to be seen regarding how the new EU Unified Patent Court will treat injunctive relief in practice, recent data shows that the U.S. framework may be turning in favor of injunction, despite a perception that it can be nearly impossible to obtain in the U.S., say Nirav Desai, Patrick Murray and Roberta Lam at Sterne Kessler.