Around the IP Blogs

How to gently tell a passionate entrepreneur his invention might be “obvious”? IP Watchdog published a practical post on explaining the intricate patent prosecution to non-lawyers. 

The new Turkish IP Law, which came into force in 2017, removed the non-examined patent system from Turkish patent law. However, it is still possible to request conversion of a non-examined patent to an examined patent within the protection period of 7 years of a granted non-examined patent. Kluwer Patent Blog reported on litigation between Turkish and German car companies that tested these new laws in court. 

In October, President Trump issued two executive orders that are generally directed to requiring federal agencies to “act transparently and fairly with respect to all affected parties … when engaged in civil administrative enforcement or adjudication.” Patently-O explores their effects on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a federal agency. 

Previously UK courts had looked for the prosaic inputs of labour, skill or judgment when assessing originality in a copyright claim. Now they ask whether the work is the author’s ‘intellectual creation’, looking to see if it reflects the author’s personality, expressing free and creative choices. The 1709 blog reported on a recent case concerning joint authorship of the screenplay of the film Florence Foster Jenkins sheds some light on the je ne sais quoi required to satisfy originality. 

This week, the Brazilian Intellectual Property Office (INPI) published the first process for international applications of trade marks. IP Tango has more information and a link to the official documents (in Portuguese). 

Snack attack! Earlier this month, Italian authorities seized approximately 250 tubes of Prosecco and Pink Peppercorn (yum?) flavoured Pringles crisps from a supermarket chain in Northeastern Italy. The ‘administrative seizure’ was ordered on the basis that the name Prosecco – which is protected as Designation of Origin (PDO) under EU Regulation 1308/2013 – was used ‘illegitimately’ on the packages. Kluwer Trademark blog explores why we might be able to get the crisps back on the shelves. 

Kluwer Trademark Blog also reported on Koton Mağazacilik Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ v. EUIPO, an important recent CJEU case that contributed to the development of EU case law that offers guidance on assessing when a trade mark is filed in “bad faith”. 

At last year’s UC Berkeley IP conference, two scholars advanced a controversial argument: trade secret law should mimic copyright law more, and should not prevent people such as departing employees from making new end uses of trade secret information, so long as it’s not a foreseeable use of the underlying information and is generally outside of the plaintiff’s market. Written Description blog author shares her response.