Court of Justice of the European Union Press Release: “The Advocate General observes that freedom of expression clearly applies in the field of trade marks, even though its protection is not the primary goal of trade marks, the aim of which is essentially to guarantee to consumers the origin of the goods or services...

Case C-372/19: Sabam v BVBA Weareone.World and NV Wecandance
 

Copyright. "Preliminary questions on the abuse of a dominant position by a copyright management for remuneration model to calculate licence fees" 

Preliminary questions:

"Must Article 102 TFEU, whether or not read in conjunction with Article...

Forbes.com: "The United States Patent and Trademark Office has denied Rapper Cardi B’s application to trademark her catchphrase, “Okurr” because it’s too “commonplace.” Ouch. Just kidding. That’s actually just normal trademark denial language. A trademark is intended to indicate the source of goods or services to...

Forbes.com: "Nearly a year ago, I wrote that it was time for the United States Patent and Trademark Office to grant the requested trademark for the all-female rock band, Thunderpussy. Well, now it's really, really time as the Supreme Court has struck down the federal law that prohibited the registration of “immoral or...

Case C-237/19. Request for a preliminary ruling from the Kúria (Hungary)

minbuza.nl (unofficial translation from Dutch): "Gömböc has applied for registration of three-dimensional sign as a trade mark for decorative objects (umbrella and decorative objects made of glass and ceramics) and toys in Hungary at the...

Design Law - Proceedings regarding the Registered Community Design for ‘fluid distribution equipment’. (Courtesy of Gert-Jan van den Bergh en Auke van Hoek, Bergh Stoop & Sanders en Berber Brouwer, Brouwer & Law)

Case C-354/19: Novartis AG v Patent-och registreringsverket

Patent law - Request for preliminary ruling, on the interpretation of Article 3(c) of Regulation No 469/2009 and Article 3(2) of Regulation No 1610/96.

"1. Is the obligation on a national court to interpret the Directive 2006/115 on rental...

Case C-265/19: Recorded Artists Actors Performers Limited v Phonographic Performance (Ireland) Limited

Copyright - "Preliminary reference on the interpretation of Directive 2006/115/EC"

Preliminary questions: 

"1. Is the obligation on a national court to interpret the Directive 2006/115 on rental...

Wired.com: "Over the weekend, the music annotation site Genius publicly accused search juggernaut Google of stealing its crowdsourced song transcripts and natively publishing them on its search pages in knowledge panels Google calls its “One Box.” Doing so, Genius alleges, hurts Genius’ bottom line by diverting traffic...

Trade mark law - General Court EU Press Release: “[…] In today’s judgment, the General Court upholds the annulment decision, dismissing the action brought by adidas against the EUIPO decision. The General Court notes, first of all, that the mark is not a pattern mark composed of a series of regularly repetitive...

businessinsider.nl: "Niantic, the creator of “Pokémon Go” and the forthcoming “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite,” has filed suit against Global++, an “association of hackers” that allegedly makes and distributes “hacked” versions of its games.

Those versions, which Niantic calls “hacked” and Global++ apparently calls...

Zawya.com: "The approval of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) is a must to make any changes in folklore, which is considered to be a public property owned by the state, informed sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette.

The recently-approved rules and executive bylaws for the copyright protection law...

Electronic Communications Services - A VoIP service is an electronic communications service when the publisher is remunerated for the provision of this service and the provision is subject to an agreement between the providers of telecommunications services who are duly authorised to send and terminate calls to the...

Trade Mark Law - Argument that trade mark VERMÖGENSMANUFAKTUR (registered prior to IP-translator (IPPT20120619)) has been annulled only for services falling under the literal meaning of the headings of Classes 35 and 36 fails: the trade mark was protected in respect of all services in those classes and therefore...

Trade Mark Law - Classification given by the applicant when registering a sign as a "colour mark" or "figurative mark" is a relevant factor amongst others to establish whether that sign can constitute a trade mark under Article 2 of the Trade Mark Directive 2008 and whether this mark has distinctive character under...

National Law Review: "On May 2, 2019, the United States Trademark Office issued new Examination Guidelines for goods and services associated with cannabis and cannabis-derived products and services legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill. This crack in the federal armor against the cannabis economy opens the door for the...

forbes.com: "With a musical legacy that spans over 40 years — and counting — Iron Maiden is indisputably, as its website maintains, "an institution."

[...]

And now they are plaintiffs in a trademark infringement lawsuit filed in California federal court. The suit is over a video game called "Ion Maiden...

PetaPixel message: "Ariana Grande made headlines a couple of months ago for striking back at “greedy photographers” with a concert tour photo contract that demands full copyright to photos. Now the singer is being sued by a photographer for posting his photos of her without permission on Instagram. 

[...]

Protected designation of origin. Figurative signs can “evoke” a registered name. No exception for producers of the products concerned established in the regio. Presumed consumer reaction based on sufficiently direct and clear link. Relevant consumers are European consumers, including consumers of the place where the...

Case C-683/17: Cofemel v G-Star. Opinion A-G Szpunar van 2 mei 2019. Preliminary questions Supremo Tribunal de Justiça, Portugal.

Copyright - G-Star has marketed jeans of the Arc model under one of its brands and sweaters and T-shirts of the Rowdy model. G-Star submitted to a Portuguese court at first instance...