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Too busy carving those jack-o'-lanterns? No worries, if you missed last week’s IPKat highlights, the 203 rd edition of Never Too Late is here to offer you a summary, while the IPKat is off trick or treating now. Happy Halloween Kat friends! Trade Marks and Domain Names Kat Eleonora Rosati discusses a recent US trade mark case Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, et al., v. Feyoncé, Inc. et al. ,  16-CV-2532 (AJN) , where the US District Court for Southern District of New York   focused on determining whether products carrying the word FEYONCÉ are sponsored by or affiliated with famous singer Beyoncé, or blur the distinctiveness of her mark: Does FEYONCÉ blur BEYONCÉ's distinctiveness? Kat Neil Wilkof considers the differences in connection with search costs and brand value between “branded” and “unbranded” goods and services (here, hotels) : Why pay more? What "opaque hotel inventory" teaches us about brands and search costs . Kat friends   Lau Kok Keng ,  Nich...

The IPKat has had his portrait painted by the AmeriKat - raising another issue of non-human authorship/ownership In the AmeriKat's free time (which does, on occasion, exist), she takes her paw to some painting, being her medium of choice since kittenhood.   The paintbrush is dictated by the AmeriKat's paw which, in turn, is dictated by the spark of artistic expression and emotion lighting up the hemispheres of her brain.  Artistic expression which cannot be downloaded, decoded or analyzed in any complete way.  It is this artistic expression and the old image of the tortured, hungry and, often, poor artist, that historically fueled some of the philosophic underpinnings of some copyright systems  and, in particular, purportedly justified moral rights and duration extensions.  Over the last century, the subject matter of copyright has seen an expansion as the proliferation of information has created "new"  subject matter capable of protection with the jus...

Conference season is in full swing, and our friends at the ERA Academy of European Law wish to let The IPKat know about two events that come with a substantial discount for our readers. The first event is devoted to all things EU copyright: it is the Annual Conference on European Copyright Law 2018 , which is taking place in Trier (Germany) on 22 and 23 November 2018. The agenda looks juicy, with talks devoted to the Digital Single Market copyright reform , the definition and responsibility of online content-sharing service providers, online use of press publications, public interest and limits to copyright protection, human rights and copyright, key recent rulings from the CJEU (featuring Marko Ileši č , ie the judge rapporteur in both GS Media , C-160/15 and Ziggo , C-610/15), and data economy policy and copyright. The other good news is that IPKat readers enjoy a 25% discount on the registration fee. For further information and to register, click here and use the IPKat VIP code 201...

A few weeks ago, I published a map - that I created for my students - detailing the main potential events in the life of an EU/national trade mark. Today I have prepared a new student map, this time devoted to the main potential events in the life of a copyright work in Europe. The map should be read in combination with other copyright materials I have produced, including: Linking under EU Copyright Law Right of Communication to the Public – Potential Liability Under Article 3(1) InfoSoc Directive Copyright Infringement Checklist UK Copyright Exceptions This new map, which is not meant at all as exhaustive, can be downloaded here and is reproduced also below. Other students materials are available here . As always, any feedback is very welcome!

It's conference season also for Kats The IPKat is happy to remind readers about two forthcoming events, devoted to copyright law and to competition law in the pharma sector, respectively. If you are interested in copyright law and wish to discuss what has happened over the past few (eventful) months, then you may want to check details of the annual  International Copyright Law conference   that is taking place in London on 27 and 28 November 2018. The agenda of this event includes topics ranging from EU copyright and WIPO developments to Brexit and everything in-between. The other good news is that IPKat readers enjoy a 15% discount in the registration fee. Just  click here   to register and use the VIP code  FKW82865IPKE2 . IPKat readers enjoy at 15% discount also for another event, devoted to discussing competition law aspects in the pharmaceutical sector and taking place in Brussels on 4 December 2018. The agenda of Competition Law in the Pharmaceutical Secto...

Hot on the heels of the ChIPs Global Summit in D.C. a couple of weeks ago (more reports to come), is news of the London Chapter's next event on 14 November 2018 at 6:00 for 6:30PM at Simmons & Simmons  entitled " Take your seat at the bench:  An evening with the IP/Tech Judges ".  In over 10 years of practice, the AmeriKat has only appeared before a woman judge once - a breach of confidence return date. This is not particularly surprising given the stats:  although 68% of law students are women, only just over 20% of High Court judges and 29% of law firm partners are women.  More work needs to be done, but things are changing.  There are an increasing number of women lawyers sitting as judges and hearing a wide breadth of IP and tech cases in the English courts. So how do we get the next wave of women to the bench?  This is the question that the London Chapter of ChIPs will be asking an esteemed panel of women IP/tech judges who have already for...

In a retrial proceeding (No 4191 [2017], Petition, Administrative Division, SPC, 29 June 2018, the Chinese desicion can be found here ), the Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC)   clarified that hoarding a large number of trade marks without intention to use falls within the scope of “other illegitimate means” prohibited by Article 44, Section 1 of China’s Trademark Law. Background  The trade mark at issue is “闪银” in class 36 (Filing No 13675000). Wuhan Zhongjun Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan Zhongjun) applied for registration in December 2013, and the trade mark was registered in February 2015.  In December 2015, Beijing Shanyin Qiyi Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Shanyin Qiyi) initiated the invalidation proceeding against the “闪银” registration. It claimed that Wuhan Zhongjun was a trade mark squatter and had hoarded over 1,000 trade marks in bad faith. On 19 October 2016, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of China (TRAB) invalidated the disputed trade...

As readers will know, over the past few years, Australia has considered or has introduced a number of changes to its copyright law. The latest news concerns online piracy and how to tackle copyright infringements occurred via the internet more effectively by means of enhanced website blocking orders.  Katfriend Fiona Philiips ( Fiona Phillips Law ) explains the background to and content of a bill that was introduced a few days ago. Here’s what Fiona writes: Australia has traditionally experienced relatively high levels of copyright infringement. In 2015, the Australian Government introduced site blocking as a remedy into the Australian  Copyright Act . The scheme enables rights holders to apply to the court to order service providers to block access to foreign websites which have the primary purpose of infringing (or facilitating infringement of) copyright. It is largely modeled on the successful site blocking regime in the UK. Since its introduction, the scheme has been used...

Earlier this year, the Swedish Patent and Market Court was requested to issue an injunction against Swedish internet service provider  Telia Company (Telia) to block access to the likes of The Pirate Bay, Dreamfilm, Nyafilmer, Fmovies, and several other related proxies and mirror sites [ here ] . Following the application, the Patent and Market Court ordered Telia - by way of an interim ruling – to block access to the above-mentioned sites. The blocking order would come into effect by the end of this month. Several of the sites at issue give access to works protected by copyright either through links to torrent sites (eg, The Pirate Bay) or by enabling users to upload/download and make available those works without the consent of relevant rightholders. Section 53B (first sentence thereof) of the Swedish Act on Copyright in Literary and Artistic Works (1960:729) (SCA) states that, upon application by a rightholder, a court may issue an injunction prohibiting, on a penalty of a ...

Freedom of the press Last year The IPKat reported on two new important referrals to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) from Germany. One of them, known as the Afghanistan Pap ers case [it is now  Funke Medien NRW GmbH v  Federal Republic of Germany , C-469/17 ] is asking about the interplay between copyright protection and freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Background The reference was made in the context of litigation between the German Government and German newspaper  WAZ  over the unauthorized publication by the latter of the so called 'Afghanistan Papers', ie confidential military reports on the operations of German armed forces in that region in the period 2005-2012. The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) stayed the proceedings, and asked the CJEU to clarify whether and to what extent the assessment of prima facie copyright infringement and the applicability of the exceptions in favour of the press (Article 5(3)(c) of the I...