http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2020/01/around-ip-blogs.html
| Mittens is casually easing into another decade of IP blogging Source: Cats are on top |
End of the year (and decade) content
Patent industry insiders shared their Christmas wishlists on IP Watchdog. Their wildest IP dreams for 2020 range from no more monkeys in courtrooms (literally) to the USPTO Director taking on the responsibility of instituting America Invents Act trials and the US government maintaining a database of patent ownership and transactions.
IP Watchdog also asked its experts to gaze into their crystal balls and make predictions about the future. Some are looking forward to major IP decisions on the US Supreme Court docket, while others forecast more litigation on AI, deep fakes, cannabis, and paparazzi photos.
Patently-O made graphics showing the number of utility patents issued per year and per decade. 2019 and the 2010s both saw record numbers.
Kluwer Patent Blog shared it’s top 10 most popular posts of 2019. Posts on management and leadership at the European Patent Office dominate the list.
Kluwer Copyright Blog also shared its top 10 most popular posts of 2019. The top spots are occupied by posts clarifying various aspects of the new Copyright Directive.
The 1709 Blog published a thorough, lengthy recap of copyright news in 2019. Catch up on the eventful year here.
Patents
Do some changes in the Inventor Rights Act of 2019 sound familiar to you? Patently-O explained their historical underpinnings.
Longstanding and economically efficient balance in Standard-Essential Patent (SEP) licensing is being destabilized by misinformation and manipulation of commercial practices and of benchmarks in Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing. This is epitomized in litigation between Apple and Qualcomm, commencing January 2017, until settlement in April 2019 and in the US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust action against Qualcomm also commencing around the same time and now on appeal. Find out more on IP Finance.
Trade Marks
Over the past few weeks, two courts cases dealt with the scope of protection of the PDO “Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena” and the PGI “Aceto Balsamico di Modena”. Both courts agreed that “Acerto” and “Balsamico” are generic and common terms which do not fall under the scope of protection of PDOs/PGIs, but one of them found enough “evocation” to establish infringement. Kluwer Trade Mark Blog wrote about these decisions.
Copyright
In reaction to the impact of illegal distribution of audiovisual content, some important improvements in the fight against piracy were made. Kluwer Copyright Blog compared two types of court orders created for sport events: “fast injunctions” in Italy and “super injunctions” in the UK.
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