General IP News

The Cartoon Network sued Hassan Nesirot for 100,000 NIS as statutory compensation for copyright infringement,. The plaintiff is a company that was incorporated in the United States that owns much copyright and trademarks, and ... Read More

In English-speaking countries, Porsche markets its cars with the slogan “There Is No Substitute”. But can a new Porsche be a substitute for an old Porsche? In a recent decision (T-209/18), the EU General Court suggests that there is no point in asking, as most people would not even ... Read More

On June 20, 2019, I will be joining the Licensing Executives Society in a mid-day discussion at the Sheraton Palo Alto Hotel on IP Licensing in China.  I will be joined by: Matthew Laight;  Bird & Bird, Chen Gu, Tencent America; and Ben Wang, former Chief IP Counsel, ZTE TX. ... Read More

A Natural Right to Copy by Glynn Lunney, Texas A&M University School of LawThanks to the great women who encouraged intellectual honesty in topics and analysis of topics, not just Gordon but also Litman, Samuelson, others.  Gordon doesn’t agree w/how far Lunney takes her argument, but that’s ok.  Gordon’s “A Property Right ... Read More

Death in Copyright: Remarks on Duration by Abraham Drassinower, University of Toronto Faculty of LawWhat would a rights based account of duration look like?  Really about death, not duration. Patents have a fixed term; trademark registrations also persist for a specific amount of time before renewal is required.  © is life plus 70 ... Read More

DS/542, the WTO case that the US filed against China regarding China’s legal regime for foreign technology transfers, has now been suspended by order of the Panel.  The parallel case that was filed later by the European Union has not yet been similarly suspended. When I was in Beijing earlier ... Read More

Harmless Free Riding by Wendy Gordon, Boston University School of Law (Additional related drafts from Wendy: Time and Intellectual Property After Coaseand Proximate Cause in the Law of Copyright: Linking Liability to Incentives)Common law imposes penalties on those who harm much more readily than it requires people to avoid benefiting without payment; very few duties to ... Read More

A Celebration of the Work of Wendy Gordon, Boston University School of LawA Cover Note from WendyWorkshop ScheduleIntellectual Property Harms by Jessica Silbey, Northeastern University School of LawFrom book focusing on the idea of progress in IP law, with more interviews w/people in creative industries. Is it just more IP?  What IP is ... Read More

Where copyright contents and the printed word are concerned, nothing so divides the over and under 40-year old’s than the cultural role of the library [or at least, as Merpel says, together with the print and ink newspaper format]. This Kat's father arrived as an immigrant to the US from ... Read More

Quan v. Ty, Inc., No. 17 C 5683, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Mar. 20, 2019) (Kennelly, J.). Judge Kennelly denied defendant Ty’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 56 motion for summary judgment as to equitable estoppel and abandonment regarding plaintiffs’ patent and copyright infringement claims regarding a plush seal that Ty ... Read More

Maastricht meets Games … and more! Last week, Maastricht University hosted the on-tour More Than Just a Game (MTJG) conference. Gathered together at the Aula Hall, researchers and legal professionals who are passionate about the creative industries discussed a number of hot issues, including video game vs. copyright works, games in health care and ... Read More

Readers will recall [Merpel says, "Or may learn for the first time"] that the IPKat was launched as a teaching aid to share accessible and updated information about intellectual property law. In many regards, author Eric Schrivjer seems to have been driven by the same motivation with ‘Copy this book ... Read More

Catch up with the latest developments in the IP world with the new edition of Never Too Late!Trade MarksGuestKat Nedim Malovic took a look at the recent confirmation from the Swedish Supreme Court that the storage of infringing goods with a view to sell them might trigger both civil and criminal liability ... Read More

Tactical Medical Solutions, Inc. v. KARL 2019 WL 2435859, No. 14 C 06035 (N.D. Ill. Jun. 11, 2019)TMS sued Karl and his sole proprietorship, EMI, for infringement of TMS’s design and utility patents by selling a “knockoff” version of TMS’s SOF tourniquet. TMS argued that EMI falsely advertised the knockoff ... Read More

This Kat was delighted to review the 5th Edition of Professor Adrian Sterling's World Copyright Law, edited by Trevor Cook, with contributions from internationally recognised practitioners and academics. [Patricia Akester, Johanna Gibson, Michael Hart, Sabine Jacques, Phillip Johnson, Stavoula Karapapa, Florian Koempel, Deming Liu, Dinusha Mendis and Jason Raeburn.]This book considers, in ... Read More

Westgate Resorts, Ltd. v. Sussman, No. 6:17-cv-1467-Orl-37DCI (M.D. Fla. May 31, 2019)OK, this fact shocked me: about 35% of Westgate’s timeshare buyers default some time during their loan periods, according to the decision here in this battle in the timeshare wars.  That is an appalling number, indicating to me a ... Read More

With an application filed in December 2012 Mr Carlos Moreira sought to register the word mark “Neymar” as an EU trade mark (EUTM) for goods in class 25 (clothing, footwear, headgear) of the Nice Classification. The EUTM was registered and published in 2013.In February 2017, the intervener, Neymar Da Silva ... Read More

What does 'volitional conduct' mean in direct copyright infringement under US law? When the Second Circuit answered this question in April, the panel did not agree on the answer.The IPKat is delighted to host a guest contribution by Katfriend Zachary Wawrzyniakowski, a JD student at Chicago-Kent College of Law, who ... Read More

VitalGo, Inc. v. Kreg Therapeutics, Inc., No. 16 C 5577, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Mar. 27, 2019) (Dow, J.). Judge Dow granted in part defendant Kerg’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) & 12(f) motion to strike portions of plaintiff VitalGo’s Second Amended Complaint (SAC) and to dismiss VitalGo’s claims with ... Read More

On Monday, the UK IPO launched it's latest materials aimed at helping teachers to bring copyright education into schools.This Kat is particularly proud of this project, as she was part of the founding team whilst at the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) during her PhD years and ... Read More

One of the T-shirts produced by the defendantItalian image rights protection is notoriously quite strong and is also available post mortem. In the latter case, consent to the use of one's own likeness must be obtained, in the first place, from the person's spouse and children.An estate that has been ... Read More

Patents afford great protection for inventions, but have high threshold in order to ensure that few patents that disclose nothing new are issued. AS one can imagine from common sense, anything that is patented needs to not be obvious, as this would allow for the protection of something that lacks ... Read More

With the help of Phil Malone and Alyssa Picard at Stanford's IP clinic, I and others submitted a law professors' brief in this case involving Activision's use of Humvees in depictions of military operations in the Call of Duty games.  AMG (which claims to own the trade dress at issue) has ... Read More

Hosts of online content could face greater obligations to monitor their services for illegal content if the advice of a senior court official is written into EU case law. ... Read More

Fair Isaac Corp. v. Trans Union, LLC, No. 17 C 8318, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Mar. 27, 2019) (Coleman, J.). Judge Coleman granted in part defendant Trans Union’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss plaintiff FICO’s amended complaint and denied Trans Union’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(e) alternative ... Read More

In this week of IP news, we say farewell to a beloved GuestKat, celebrate World Anti-Counterfeiting Day, and have a round-up of upcoming opportunities! Here we go.Thank you Rosie and all the best!The IPKat team is sad to say farewell to GuestKat Rosie Burbidge, who is leaving the blog after ... Read More

Your weekly tour of the IP blogosphere is here! Highlights this week includes an update on copyright and Brexit, the changes in the payment of government fees to protect IP rights in Venezuela and the pending petition in Ariosa v. Illumina.Copyright The Kluwer Copyright Blog provides an update on Copyright and Brexit. ... Read More

Sally found her flexibility in SEP licensingnegotiations was a bit constrainedIt's time for a dose of Friday FRAND, this time courtesy of Axel Ferrazzini (Managing Director of 4iP Council, ) on the recent decision of the Higher District Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf in the forever running, lawyers' pension plan that ... Read More

Fair Isaac Corp. v. Trans Union, LLC, No. 17 C 8318, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Mar. 27, 2019) (Coleman, J.). Judge Coleman granted in part plaintiff FICO’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss defendant Trans Union’s counterclaims in this antitrust, Lanham Act unfair trade practices and related state ... Read More

While European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation has just marked its first anniversary, the United States and, in particular California, have yet to follow in its footsteps.  Sort of, that is.  In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal last year, California enacted the Consumer Privacy Act (CPA), which will ... Read More