http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2020/03/around-ip-blogs_11.html
| This Kat is opining on IP law |
It’s been a busy week in the IP blogosphere. So without further ado, let’s take a look at recent commentary and developments.
Trade Marks
The Trademark Lawyer and The Fashion Law reported here and here on British comedian Joe Lycett’s name change to Hugo Boss, in order to protest what he sees as overly heavy-handed trade mark assertion by fashion company Hugo Boss against small businesses.
The Fashion Law also offered context and comment on the “Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-Commerce” – SHOP SAFE – Act 2020, recently introduced to the US House of Representatives. It aims to establish trade mark liability in certain circumstances for online marketplaces which do not crack down on the sale of counterfeit products on their platforms.
On the TTABlog, there was commentary on the standard applied by the USPTO when confronted with a sign in another language (in this case, whether MONFRÈRE FASHION is liable to be confused with MY BROTHER).
Patents
The FPC Review commented on how to interpret expressions stating a purpose in patent claim construction, according to the Swiss Federal Patent Court’s comparison of the EPO and Swiss Supreme Court’s approaches.
Juve Patent anticipated yesterday, Tuesday 10 March’s hearing in Sisvel v. Haier at the German Federal Court of Justice, which could result in the standardisation of SEP/FRAND in Germany. It also commented in the same piece on parallel proceedings taking place in the UK.
In a similar vein, Tom Cotter of Comparative Patent Remedies published further comments on the USPTO, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s ‘Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments’.
The Kluwer Patent Blog hosted commentary on a recent decision of China’s SPC IP Tribunal on the conditions for infringement of a method-of-use telecommunications patent when the infringer did not actually perform any step of the patented method.
Copyright
On SpicyIP, Adarsh Ramunajan discussed recent orders of the Madras High Court and the Bombay High Court imposing interim injunctions against public event organisers’ playing of copyright-protected music during Christmas and New Year parties.
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