snIPpets – January 2013
Trade Marks
- Court of Appeal restricts the use of witness gathering exercises in trade mark infringement cases
- Warning for owners of trade marks with a "figurative figleaf of distinctiveness"
- Advocate General advises that registering a CTM should not be a defence to infringement
- 3-D Scrabble Tile: not a sign capable of graphic representation
- Use of a different form of trade mark can still be genuine use
- Yoghurt is Yoghurt
- China trade Mark Practice Note – Retail Services
Copyright
- Extra-Time at the High Court
Database rights
- English Court takes jurisdiction over another database infringement case
Designs
- The Informed User can have an imperfect recollection
Internet
- You don't own my email!
Patents
- English Court flexes its muscles on declarations of non-infringement
- Proposal to make clinical trials less risky and online drug sales safer
- Court of Appeal confirms invalidity of patent for EXELON because it was obvious to resolve racemate using standard techniques
Patents / Competition
General
- The MBE Course: Fieldfisher meets budding entrepreneurs
- What to watch out for in 2013
- Other News
UK Judgments (following CJEU rulings):
Interflora v Marks & Spencer - on the use by M&S of INTERFLORA as an advertising keyword
Football Dataco v Sportradar – on liability for "re-utilisation" of database contents
SAS Institute v World Programming Limited - on the scope of copyright protection for computer programs
CIPA v Registrar of Trade Marks ("IP Translator" case) - on class headings in trade mark specifications
L'Oreal v eBay - on intermediary liability
Novartis v Actavis – on Supplemental Protection Certificates
Other UK judgments
Newspaper Licensing Agency v Meltwater Holding (on appeal from the Court of Appeal) - on the scope of copyright protection when browsing newspaper headlines and extracts
Football Dataco v Sportradar; Football Dataco v James Abingdon (Court of Appeal decision) - on the subsistence of database right and joint liability for infringement
Advocate General's Opinions
ITV v TV CatchUp - on copyright aspects of live internet streaming of terrestrial TV broadcasts
Actavis v Sanofi and AstraZeneca v Comptroller General of Patents on SPCs
Nils Svensson v Retreiver Sverige on whether linking to websites is a communication to the public
CJEU rulings
FCI v FCIPPR – on defence of later registered CTM in CTM infringement proceedings
General
Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court – agreement to be signed in February and subsequently ratified by Member States
New EU Customs Regulation – second reading of proposal likely in March 2013.
New Costs Management Procedures in English IP litigation – April 2013
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill – repeal of s52 CDPA 1988 and the power to make exceptions to copyright law without parliamentary scrutiny – Bill currently at the Committee stage of the House of Lords.
Patent Box – reduction of corporation tax on income from the exploitation of new patents – from April 2013.
EU Orphan Works Registry – database to be set up in 2013
Law Commission Consultation on Unjustified Threats Provisions for trade marks, patents and designs –February 2013
New generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) – evaluation and publication of results and possible delegation by the end of the year