Around the IP Blogs

With warmer temperatures ahead, it’s time to look back on last week’s developments from around the IP blogs. 

The buzz around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in recent months continues unabated, with a post on the Kluwer Copyright Blog about the role of copyright law and their status under it.

CREATe (University of Glasgow) has published a new working paper on ‘Art and Modern Copyright: the Contested Image’, following up on its recent issuance of one on ‘Copyright History in Review’.

The appointment of James Mellor as the next IP-specialist judge on England & Wales’ High Court featured on JUVE Patent, which interviewed him about a range of issues including anti-suit injunctions and how hearings are being adapted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

FOSS Patents reported on the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice’s decision under Biden effectively to archive the Trump administration’s stance on standard essential patent (SEP) enforcement, which had been expressed in an updated version of its 2015 Business Review Letter to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a standards-setting organisation.

Over on the Kluwer Patent Blog, Matthieu Dhenne summarised a recent debate in France over whether compulsory licences should be granted in the interest of public health at times of acute crisis and if patents are indeed a key barrier to domestic vaccine production.

The TTABlog reported on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s decision to affirm a finding that VAGISAN is confusable with VAGISIL for female intimate care products, largely based on survey evidence.

SpicyIP explained the role of trademarks, packaging and visual impressions in generating customer loyalty, effectively as a means of extending de-facto monopolies over pharmaceutical products beyond the term of patent protection.

Whether Lil Nas X’s “Satan Shoes” – 666 pairs of modified Nike Air Max ’97s – would have been deemed a trade mark violation or a matter of free speech if not for the parties’ settlement was considered on the IP Watchdog.

Photo by Felix Mittermeier via Pexels.