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Intellectual Property UK
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June 03, 2024
C&A Can't Block Rival's 'Her & There' TM
C&A failed to fully block a rival clothing brand's trademark for "Her & There," after European officials ruled that the multinational retailer's prior signs looked similar but covered different types of goods.
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June 03, 2024
German Courts Dominate Claims In UPC's 1st Year
Infringement actions filed at German divisions have made up the great majority of cases filed at the Unified Patent Court since it opened its doors in June 2023, statistics show, as the court celebrates its first anniversary.
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June 03, 2024
Virtual Reality Therapy Patent Tossed In EPO Appeal
A European Patent Office appeals body has rejected an appeal by a company treating chronic pain conditions with virtual reality against the refusal of its patent, after officials found its therapy was essentially a reinvention of other treatments.
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May 31, 2024
Toy Co. Wins Fight Against Rival's 'Petit Boum' TM Bid
A Belgian toy company has blocked a Spanish competitor from registering its "Petit Boum" trademark, with a European Union intellectual property authority appeals board concluding that the mark is too similar to one of the Belgian business' existing logos.
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May 31, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen financier Crispin Odey file a defamation claim against the Financial Times, Ford hit with the latest "Dieselgate" claim and a human rights activist bring a privacy claim against Saudi Arabia. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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May 31, 2024
Teva Can't Nix Glaxo's Asthma Patent In EPO Appeal
Teva's U.K. business has failed to convince an appeals board at the European Patent Office to upend a decision that a Glaxo Group patent for a drug combination used to treat asthma involved an inventive step.
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May 31, 2024
Future Bright For UPC If 'Urgent' Tech Problems Solved
A year after the Unified Patent Court opened its doors, the court looks to be living up to its promise as a premier venue for global patent litigation, but lawyers say that technical glitches behind the scenes must be remedied urgently if it is to excel.
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May 31, 2024
Adhesive Biz Comes Unstuck In Bid To Block 'Monta' EU TM
A packaging company has fought off an adhesive producer's attempt to dash its "Monta" European Union trademark hopes, convincing an appeals panel that consumers would not confuse the sign with its opponent's earlier "Montack" sign.
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May 31, 2024
US Medical Products Maker Loses Slogan TM Challenge
A U.S. medical products company has lost its appeal for trademark protection for its slogan "Think. Make. Protect." after European officials ruled that the sign implies that it gave "thorough consideration" to its products when they were manufactured.
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May 30, 2024
EU Court Buries Bid To Nix Plant Nursery's Succulent Variety
A European court ruled Wednesday that a Belgian plant nursery can register a new type of succulent, upholding an earlier decision by the bloc's plant intellectual property rights body to refuse a Dutch company's challenge to the plant.
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May 30, 2024
Nike Scores Partial Win In Adidas '3 Stripes' Appeal
Nike successfully challenged a German regional court's ruling preventing it from using a stripe pattern on five of its trouser designs, in the latest round of its stripe-centric trademark dispute with Adidas.
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May 30, 2024
Xiaomi Hit With FRAND Litigation In Paris
A patent holding company has accused Xiaomi in a French court of unlawfully using its tech patents for "nearly all" of 4G-enabled devices, just a week after suing the phone giant in India.
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May 30, 2024
UPC Names Pinsent Masons Atty As New Appeals Judge
The Unified Patent Court said Thursday it has appointed a new judge to its Court of Appeal in Luxembourg after one of its legally qualified members stepped down.
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May 30, 2024
3M Nixes Teva Inhaler Patent On Appeal At EPO
3M Innovative Properties Co. has convinced European officials to ax a patent owned by Israeli generic-drug maker Teva for an inhaler that relieves pulmonary disease symptoms, arguing that other scientists would have eventually figured out its special formula.
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May 30, 2024
Nokia Can't Block Music Streamer's 'Nonoki' TM
Nokia cannot stop the registration of a trademark for "Nonoki," after European officials ruled that people wouldn't confuse the Finnish phone brand with a free music and video streaming platform.
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May 29, 2024
Rain Bird Irrigation Company Loses Fight To Keep 'Bird' TM
U.S. irrigation technology company Rain Bird Corp. has lost its fight to save its "Bird" trademark, with a European trademark authority appeals board concluding that the company had not validly used the mark because it only ever used "Rain Bird."
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May 29, 2024
Penguin Loses 'Plan B' TM Bid Over Bad Faith Ruling
A European court refused to overturn a decision nixing a Penguin Random House trademark bid Wednesday, upholding a previous ruling that the application was made to usurp the existing name rights of an independent Spanish publisher.
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May 29, 2024
Airbus Can't Resurrect European Patent For Cabin Tech
Airbus has failed to restore its patent protections over a modular cabin design after a German rival convinced a European appeals panel that the invention is too similar to two earlier patent applications.
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May 29, 2024
Facebook Parent Gets TMs Trimmed In Camera Biz Challenge
Meta had a host of its trademarks stripped back by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office on Friday, after the body sided with a London-based camera business that consumers could easily mix up the products of the two brands.
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May 29, 2024
Chiquita Brands Scores Victory In 'Queen' TM Dispute
Chiquita Brands notched a trademark win Wednesday in its bid to register "Chiquita Queen," after a European court ruled that earlier panels were wrong to think it would encroach on an existing fruit brand's territory.
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May 29, 2024
EUIPO Spoils 'Tuna' TM Bid For Halal Meat
A German halal meat company has lost an appeal to register the mark "Tuna" over food-related goods that excluded the fish, after European officials ruled that it was still capable of deceiving shoppers.
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May 28, 2024
UPC Appoints New Judges Ahead Of Milan Debut
The Unified Patent Court on Tuesday named three judges that will join its central division in Milan when the court opens in June.
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May 28, 2024
Lego Defeats Custom Train Maker In TM Dispute
Lego has convinced a Netherlands court to stop a man from selling train sets that incorporate the brand's building blocks and figurines, arguing that it still had the right to prevent resales in Europe.
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May 28, 2024
Swiss Solar Energy Co. Loses 'Sun2Cool' TM Challenge
A Swiss renewable energy company failed in its bid for trademark registration for its sign "sun2cool" on Friday after appellate officials at a European Union intellectual property authority ruled the mark was a "purely informative message."
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May 28, 2024
Eastman Group Accused Of Owning No Rights In IP Spat
A company selling paint protection film for cars is fighting allegations that one of its managers stole a database belonging to Eastman Group in order to jumpstart the business, arguing the information wasn't confidential.
Expert Analysis
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Trademark Ruling Brings Clarity To Product Defect Liability
The recent Court of Justice of the EU ruling in Fennia v. Philips, its first concerning the trademark aspect of producer liability in Article 3(1) of Directive 85/374, brings greater clarity to the question of compensation in the event of a claim for defective products, say Radboud Ribbert and Thomas van Weeren at Greenberg Traurig.
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Appointments Shape EU Unified Patent Court Before Launch
A series of judiciary appointments at the EU Unified Patent Court help put the court on track for its April opening, while also reflecting a patent-friendly enforcement system, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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5 Considerations In Preparing For EU's New Patent System
With the upcoming implementation of the unitary patent and Unified Patent Court, Europe gets closer to its long-term goal of one EU patent that can be enforced in one court, and non-EU patent owners and applicants will have strategic decisions to make, say Fabian Koenigbauer at Ice Miller and Thomas Kronberger at Grünecker.
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Reexamining Negative Limitations After Novartis Patent Ruling
The Federal Circuit's decision and denial of rehearing in Novartis v. Accord has created exacting standards that must be met in order for negative limitations in patent claims to satisfy the written description requirement, but whether the dissent is correct that the majority opinion heightened the standard is an arguable point, say Jonathan Fitzgerald and Jaime Choi at Snell & Wilmer.
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UK Courts' 3rd-Party Disclosure Rule Sets Global Precedent
The quiet change about to take place in the English Civil Procedure Rules, enabling U.K. courts to require pre-action disclosure of information from overseas third parties, is uncharted territory and will have profound implications for any organization that handles assets on behalf of a party, says Simon Bushell at Seladore Legal.
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Zara TM Ruling Shows Prefiling Clearance Is Always Advisable
The recent Trade Mark Tribunal decision regarding Zara and House of Zana demonstrates the importance of conducting prefiling clearance investigations, so that where opposition may be anticipated, a strategy can be put in place, says Melanie Harvey at Birketts.
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Dutch Merger May Promote Behavioral Remedies Across EU
A Dutch tribunal's recent clearing of the Sanoma-Iddink deal might further encourage merging parties in the EU to offer — and government agencies to accept — behavioral remedies, which was rarer when more emphasis was put on divestments, says Robert Hardy at Greenberg Traurig.
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How Will UK Address AI Patent Infringement?
As artificial intelligence-related patent litigation activity inevitably approaches, a review of U.K. principles of direct and indirect liability offers insight into how courts may address questions involving cloud-based technology and arguments related to training AI models, say Alexander Korenberg at Kilburn & Strode and Toby Bond at Bird & Bird.
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Law Commission's 'Data Objects' Proposal Is Far-Reaching
The Law Commission’s proposals to recognize data objects as a new category of personal property would bring fundamental changes were they to be implemented, and would have significant ramifications for finance litigation, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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UK Rulings Give Chinese Courts Wide Powers In IP Disputes
The recent rulings in Nokia v. Oppo and Philips v. Oppo open the door for Chinese courts to adjudicate worldwide rate-setting terms for standard-essential patents, and in so doing present a timely wake-up call as to China's influence, say F. Scott Kieff at George Washington University Law School and Thomas Grant at the University of Cambridge.
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Swatch V. Samsung Offers IP Warning To Platform Operators
The recent U.K. High Court decision of Swatch v. Samsung demonstrates that while platform operators may wish to exercise greater control over the apps distributed on their platforms, this carries with it a corresponding duty to apply due diligence to protect the intellectual property rights of third parties, say Alex Borthwick and William Hillson at Powell Gilbert.
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Opinion
The USPTO Should Give Ukraine Even More Help
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office should take three direct steps to help confer upon Ukraine's patent office the same benefits it previously granted to Russia's Rospatent, in addition to the sanctions the USPTO has already conferred in response to the attack on Ukraine, say David Kappos at Cravath, Teresa Summers at Summers Law Group and Andrew Baluch at Smith Baluch.
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International Law May Protect Foreign Investors In Russia
Investment treaties that allow eligible foreign investors to bring claims for compensation by way of international arbitration may offer a better, or the only, avenue to recover losses for assets that have been seized by Russia, say attorneys at Cooley.
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Amazon TM Ruling Proves Important For Global Websites
The U.K. Court of Appeal recently found that Amazon infringed Lifestyle Equities' trademark, and its analysis of whether there was an intention to target particular customers, provides welcome relief for brand owners and lessons on avoiding infringement for the operators of global websites, say Steven James and Hattie Chessher at Brown Rudnick.
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Sheeran Ruling Raises Burden For Copyright Plaintiffs
In requiring proof of access, rather than proof of the possibility of access, the U.K. High Court’s decision in Ed Sheeran’s recent copyright case will provide some security to those in the music industry, say David Fink and Armound Ghoorchian at Venable.