Patent Law - SPC - Case C-681/16: Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals v Orifarm, Opinion AG E. Tanchev

The plaintiff was the registered holder of an SPC protecting the protein Etanercept. Etanercept is an active substance of the drug Enbrel® that the plaintiff produces and markets in Germany. The German Patent and...

(Courtesy of Margot van Gerwen, Maarten Rijks and Eelco Bergsma, TaylorWessing and Jesse Hofhuis, Hofhuis Alkema Groen)

Trade mark law - Additional opinion following the reopened oral hearing in case Louboutin v van Haren. A reopening was called for after questions were raised by the Ninth Chamber about EU trade...

World Intellectual Property Review: 'Miami-based UnitedCorp has taken on photo-sharing platform Instagram in a patent infringement lawsuit filed at the Federal Court of Canada. According to an announcement released on Friday, February 2, UnitedCorp owns Canadian patent number 2,887,596, called “User content sharing...

Financial Times: ”The high-profile lawsuit between Uber and autonomous driving rival Waymo will go to trial this week following a nearly year-long battle of theft allegations involving encrypted texts, untraceable phones and secret meetings.[…]

Waymo has accused Uber of stealing eight trade secrets that relate...

Trade Mark Law - Litigation - The General Court correctly held that, in the context of the invalidity proceedings based on the absolute ground for refusal, the EUIPO Board of Appeal should not, in all circumstances, rule that the that evidence submitted for the first time before the Board of Appeal must be regarded as...

Advertising Law. ECHR, 30 January 2018, appl.  No. 69317/14, SEKMADIENIS LTD. v. LITHUANIA. Sekmadienis Ltd. ran an advertisement campaign for clothing with models and captions referring  to Jesus and Maria. The company was given a fine for offending against public morals. Seksmadienis Ltd. lodged an application with...

Trade Mark Law - Board of Appeal EUIPO, 21 december 2017, Ruby Decor v Essege. The appeal is dismissed. The Board of Appeal finds that the earlier mark has been put to genuine use. The use has been proved with a large quantity of invoices of which a significant number relate to the Benelux and with advertising...

Trade Mark Law - Case C-690/17. Request for a preliminary ruling. Oberlandesgericht Dusseldorf (Germany). 

Copyright Law - Case C-683/17. Request for a preliminary ruling. Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Portugal).

Competition Law - Pharmaceutical Law - National competition authorities are allowed to consider medicinal products of which the MA lays outside the treatment of the diseases at issue, but can be used for this and therefore can be regarded as substitutable with other medicinal products as products in the same market. It...

Privacy - Private International Law - A private Facebook account user is a consumer within the meaning of Article 15 of Brussels I Regulation, even when his activities entail publishing books, lecturing, operating websites, fundraising and being assigned the claims of numerous consumers for the purpose of their...

World Intellectual Property Review: "Hard Candy Cosmetics has withdrawn its trademark application for ‘#metoo’ following widespread public criticism.The US beauty brand, which sells make-up products through Walmart, abandoned its application to the US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, January 18.

Trade mark law - Appeal against judgment of the General Court regarding genuine use of the wordmark NN dismissed by reasoned order: grounds of appeal are either manifestly inadmissible or manifestly unfounded.

Decision by reasoned order to dismiss the appeal against the decision of the General Court of June...

The Verge: “KodakCoins will work as tokens inside the new blockchain-powered KodakOne rights management platform. The platform will supposedly create a digital ledger of rights ownership that photographers can use to register and license new and old work. Both the platform and cryptocurrency are supposed to “empower...

The Guardian: “Radiohead have refuted Lana Del Rey’s claim that they have filed a lawsuit against her that demands publishing rights to her song Get Free, thanks to its similarity to their song Creep."

From the press release: "Benoît Strowel, a member of Hoyng Monegier’s and HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER’s executive committee since 2011, will succeed Willem Hoyng as managing partner. The other members of the executive committee are Bart van den Broek, Christine Kanz, Carl De Meyer and Luis Fernández-Novoa.

Willem will...

Patent law - SPC. Date of the first MA, as stated in an application for the SPC, on the basis of which the duration of the certificate is calculated, is incorrect when the incorrect date led to a method for calculating the durating of the certificate which does not comply with the requirements of Article 13(1) of SPC...

Protected Designation of Origin - The use of a Protected designation of origin (PDO) as part of the name under which is sold a foodstuff that does not correspond to the product specifications for that PDO but contains an ingredient which does correspond to those specifications – like “Champagner Sorbet” containing 12%...

Design law - Scope of repair clause in article 110(1) Community Design Regulation is not limited to component parts forming part of a complex product upon whose appearance the protected design is dependent. Repair clause applies only to component parts of a complex product that are visually identical to original parts...

Trade mark law - The proprietor of a national trade mark from cannot oppose to the import of identical goods bearing the same mark originating in another Member State in which that mark, which initially belonged to that proprietor, is now owned by a third party which has acquired the rights thereto by assignment has...