SnIPpets: June 2012

snip•pet (snip'it) - noun - a small piece or portion, specifically of information

Welcome to the Spring 2012 issue of snIPpets, the intellectual property newsletter from Fieldfisher covering intellectual property news from the last few months.

In this edition of snIPpets the topics discussed are as follows:

Trade Marks

• Volkswagen loses GTI battle with Suzuki: The EU General Court has confirmed that there would be no likelihood of confusion between Suzuki's Swift GTi mark and VW's Golf GTi mark.
  
• CJEU confirms "date of filing" of a Community Trade Mark: The CJEU has ruled in Génesis v Boys Toys that under the Community Trade Mark Regulation, only the calendar day of filing of a CTM application should be taken into account, not the hour and minute of filing.
• No GLEE for claimant as PCC case transferred to the High Court: the Patents County Court has ordered that the case between the owner of a chain of British Comedy venues called 'The Glee Club' and the US TV producer of the hit TV series 'Glee' be transferred to the High Court.
• You-Q not allowed to use BEATLE mark for wheel chairs – the EU General Court has upheld the opposition by Apple Corp to a proposed Community Trade Mark for BEATLE for wheelchairs on the basis that it would take unfair advantage of the earlier BEATLES mark. 
• CJEU rules in Winstersteiger on where to bring an adwords claim – the CJEU has ruled that a keyword advertising trade mark infringement dispute may be heard either in the courts of the member state where the trade mark is registered or in the place where the advertiser is established. 
• CJEU rules that F1 mark is distinctive – the CJEU has set aside a previous decision of the General Court which failed to acknowledge the distinctive character of the F1 mark.

Copyright

• ISPs ordered to block access to Pirate Bay website - the High Court has ordered 5 major ISPs to block access to the Pirate Bay website under section 97A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
• Social networking site not obliged to install filtering system to prevent unlawful downloading - the CJEU has ruled that social networking site Netlog should not be ordered to install a system to filter out musical and audio-visual works from Sabam's (Belgian collecting society) repertoire because this would impose a general obligation to monitor on Netlog, which is prohibited by the E-Commerce Directive 
• CJEU rules on database rights in fixture lists - Football Dataco has lost out to Yahoo as a result of the CJEU ruling that football fixture lists are not protected by copyright if the compilation is not the author's own intellectual creation, even if sufficient skill and labour has been put into creating the fixture lists.
• BT and Talk Talk lose challenge to the Digital Economy Act - the Court of Appeal has rejected the ISPs' appeal against controversial terms under the Digital Economy Act 2010.
• O2 ordered to disclose customer details -  the High Court has granted a Norwich Pharmacal order against O2 ordering it to disclose details of customers unlawfully downloading pornographic content.
• CJEU rules on the broadcasting sound recordings in hotel guest rooms - the CJEU has ruled that a hotelier is liable to pay licence fees to the relevant collecting society when it plays music in its hotel rooms for guests.

Designs

• Battle of the tablets - the High Court has ruled for the first time in the UK in the Samsung/Apple battle that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear an application for a declaration of non-infringement of a Community design registered by a company domiciled outside the jurisdiction.

Patents

• Court of Appeal reverses PCC decision on validity of honey wound dressing - the Court of Appeal judge found that the judge had made two errors of principle in his finding of obviousness based on prior art.
  
• Defendants CellXion lose out on costs due to conduct - the Court of Appeal held that the defendants had run too many defences and given wasteful and unsatisfactory evidence. They were therefore deprived of their costs on the issue on which they had won but as the defendants were the overall winners at trial, they were not ordered to pay any of the other side's costs.

Other News

• Other snippets, including updates on copyright law, the Unitary Patent, a new image right in Guernsey.

For further information, please contact Mark Holah, Partner, Nick Rose, Partner or Rebecca Pakenham-Walsh, Senior Associate (PSL) at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP