On 29 March, our leading lawyers in Düsseldorf, Milan, Paris and London hosted a webinar exploring what businesses need to know and what they need to be doing now to prepare for the Unified Patent Court (UPC), which is set to start hearing cases on 1 June 2023. The presentation was followed by a short
Latest from Intellectual Property Notes - Page 6
Trade mark protection in virtual worlds/the metaverse – IP offices respond with new classes for registration of virtual goods/NFTs as trade marks and the EUIPO deals with “metaverse” marks
The new version of the Nice Classification, the 12th edition, came into force on 1 January 2023, carries new categories for registration of trade marks in relation to NFTs and is used being by several national trade mark offices including the EUIPO and IP Australia. The UK IPO has drafted new guidance also.
A new
The IP in AI: Can IP rights protect AI systems?
Part of our series The IP in AI.
With the expanding popularity of ML and AI systems, developers and investors expect those systems to be protected from unauthorised use by others.
Providing suitable protection to encourage and reward investment in the creation of intellectual property – but balancing that against the rights of the
Australian High Court smooths out wrinkle in trade mark law: Reputation not relevant to ‘deceptive similarity’ test of infringement
The High Court has clearly set out in Self Care v Allergan that the reputation of a trade mark is not relevant when assessing deceptive similarity in infringement proceedings.1 In a unanimous decision, overruling a three-judge bench of the Full Federal Court, the High Court held that Self Care did not infringe Allergan’s ‘BOTOX’ mark by its use
Can an AI be an inventor of a patent? DABUS/Thaler appeal comes before the UK Supreme Court
The UK Supreme Court has today (2 March 2023) heard the appeal by Dr Thaler against the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of his appeal from the Comptroller of Patents in relation to a patent application for which the inventor was an AI (DABUS), and which the Comptroller had dismissed when Dr Thaler provided a statement
Webinar: The Unified Patent Court (UPC) countdown has started – are you ready?
After years of debate and preparation, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is set to start accepting cases on 1 June 2023. We invite you to join our pan-European IP team for a webinar on 29 March 2023 as we assess the biggest shake-up in the region’s approach to IP for a generation. The changes will
UK withdraws plans for broader Text and Data Mining (TDM) copyright and database right exception
The UK Minister for Science, Research and Innovation has stated in Parliament that the UK Government will not be proceeding with an extension to the UK’s text and data mining exception that would have allowed, to allow much broader access to materials needed for machine learning and to train AI systems, which had been proposed
Self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin can proceed with claim that Bitcoin branch networks breach his intellectual property rights
Dr Craig Wright claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin and to have authored the Bitcoin White Paper in 2008, created the Bitcoin File Format and mined the inaugural block in the Bitcoin Blockchain – the ‘Genesis Block’. Despite the Bitcoin White Paper having promoted de-centralisation, Dr Wright is now seeking to prevent others from
Deposit of final required ratification means that the UPC will to go live on 1 June 2023
The Unified Patent Court will start to accept cases on 1 June 2023 and the sunrise period for opt-out of European patents from the new court’s jurisdiction will start on 1 March.
Germany has today (17 February 2023) deposited its instrument of ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA), the final ratification required to
Landmark trade mark/NFT decision in favour of IP owners – Hermès bags a win in the MetaBirkin case
By Sue Gilchrist, Aaron Hayward, Byron Turner and Joshua Sanchez-Lawson
Hermès has succeeded in its case of trade mark infringement against non-fungible token (NFT) artist Mason Rothschild. This was the first US trial considering the enforceability of intellectual property rights against the creator of NFTs. The outcome represents a win for IP owners in the