CNBC International: " [...] Fans could be able to buy t-shirts, shampoo and even candles featuring a black and white image of the athlete and activist with a beard, mustache and afro hairstyle, which he has applied to trademark. Kaepernick's company, Inked Flash, has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office...

Popular Mechanics: " [...] The grocery chain filed a patent in August for a shopping cart that monitors various biometric signals, like a customer's body temperature, heart rate and tightness of grip on the handle. According to the patent titled System And Method For Biometric Feedback Cart Handle, the data would be...

Press Release: "The EU Customs Action Plan to combat IPR infringements for the years 2018-2022 is attached. A roadmap will be prepared by the Commission in co-operation with Member States experts to define the actions and tools to be deployed within an agreed timeframe, taking into account the financial and human...

Case C-572/17. Syed. Preliminary questions. Högsta domstolen (Sweden).

Preliminary questions in a procedure regarding the unauthorised sale of t-shirts with logo’s of rock bands and artists. The shirts were placed in the store itself as well as in a storage elsewhere.  The Swedish Surpreme courts questions...

Motherboard: “A new study shows that after years of declines, BitTorrent usage and piracy is on the rise again. The culprit: an increase in exclusivity deals that force subscribers to hunt and peck among a myriad of streaming services to actually find the content they’re looking for.

Sandvine’s new Global...

Google: "As part of a collaboration between Google, photo industry consortium CEPIC, and IPTC, the global technical standards body for the news media, you can now access rights-related image metadata in Google Images. [...] Starting today, we’ve added Creator and Credit metadata whenever present to images on Google...

Trade mark law - Designation ‘Neuschwanstein’ from EU word mark “NEUSCHWANSTEIN” not descriptive for quality or essential characteristic  goods and services: ‘souvenir items’ not mentioned in Nice classification, goods covered by contested trade mark are everyday consumer goods and everyday services,  souvenir function...

Trade Mark Law - The General Court was entitled to hold that the applicability of the case-law relating to three-dimensional marks that are indissociable from the appearance of the goods - that are devoid of any distinctive character unless they depart significantly from the norm or customs of the sector - is...

BBC News: “Controversial new copyright laws have been approved by members of the European Parliament. The laws had been changed since July when the first version of the copyright directive was voted down. Critics say they remain problematic. Many musicians and creators claim the reforms are necessary to fairly...

Case C-215/17. Nova Kreditna Banka Maribo d.d. v Republika Slovenija. Opinon A-G Bobek. Request for a preliminary. Vrhovno sodišče Republike Slovenije (Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia).

Copyright - Trade Secrets Law. Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor d.d. ('NKBM') is a Slovenian Bank. A journalist made a...

CIOPORA & Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney: "CIOPORA Academy is partnering with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney to bring the next workshop in its series to Washington, D.C. The workshop will provide participants with a 360-degree perspective on the available IP instruments for plant innovators and, for the first time since the...

Litigation - Collective rights management - Member States are required under article 4(c) of the EU Enforcement Directive to recognize a body collectively representing trade mark proprietors as a person entitled to seek, in its own name, the application of the remedies laid down in the EU Enforcement Directive and to...

Copyright  - Posting a photograph that was published on another website, made with the same technical means, without any restrictive measures and with consent of the copyright holder falls under the concept “communication to the public”: There is an “act of communication” when such posting gives visitors to the website...

Patent Law - A product composed of several active ingredients with a combined effect is ‘protected by a basic patent in force’ within the meaning of Article 3(a) of the SPC Regulation for Medicinal Products where, even if the combination of active ingredients of which that product is composed is not expressly mentioned...

Trade Mark Law - Trade mark proprietor is entitled to oppose, on the grounds of Article 5 of the Trade Marks Directive (2008) and Article 9 of the EU Trade Mark Regulation, a third party removing all the signs identical to that mark and affixing other signs, without its consent, on products placed in the customs...

From the press release: "The percentage of Internet users in Europe that occasionally downloads or streams music, films, series, books or games illegally, e.g. via The Pirate Bay or PopcornTime, has decreased between 2014 and 2017. This decrease is strongest for music, films and series. Meanwhile, expenditure on legal...

Court of Justice of the European Union Press Release: "[...] The Court concludes that, although it is not necessary, for the purposes of registering a mark that was formerly devoid of distinctive character, that evidence of the acquisition by that mark of distinctive character through use be submitted in respect of...

Case C-310/17: Levola v Smilde. Opinion A-G Wathelet.

The court of appeal Arnhem-Leeuwarden (Dutch court) has referred two questions to the Court of Justice for preliminary ruling about the possibility to copyright the taste of a food product. A-G Wathelet considers that in view of the current state of the...

Trade Mark Law - The General Court was right to consider that EUIPO’s bodies could not satisfy their obligation to state reasons: Puma had raised the argument that the reputation of the earlier marks had been recognised ‘in numerous Office decisions’, the fact remains that the Board of Appeal failed to cite from among...

Trade Mark Law - Trade mark proprietor cannot oppose parallel import of a medical device in authentic inside- and outside packaging which, by its content, function, size, presentation and placement, does not give rise to a risk to the guarantee of origin of the medical device bearing the mark. Conditions from...