Our new quarterly publication – Hot Topics in Intellectual Property and Technology – highlights the most significant legal developments in the UK and Europe in the areas of intellectual property and technology, contract, data protection and privacy, trade secrets and advertising and media. Our Hot Topics briefing is intended to keep you abreast of key … Continue Reading
The European Parliament has approved new laws which will extend the powers of EU customs authorities to seize counterfeit goods merely travelling through the EU. Currently, following the ruling in the joined cases of Philips/Nokia in 2011, customs authorities may only seize fake goods which are likely to be placed on the market in the … Continue Reading
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Europe’s highest court, has given its much anticipated ruling on when hyperlinking will be lawful (Svensson v Retriever Sverige AB). The dispute The dispute concerned four journalists who wrote for the Swedish newspaper Gӧteborgs-Posten. The articles also appeared on the Gӧteborgs-Posten website. Retriever Sverige (Retriever) operated … Continue Reading
A few days ago, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Europe’s highest court, handed down a ruling which will be of interest to copyright holders who supply copy protected works and those who manufacture and supply devices designed to circumvent the copy protection. The result of the ruling is that those devices will, … Continue Reading
Wikipedia’s parent company, Wikimedia, has recently sent a cease and desist letter to a PR firm for engaging in an activity known as “sockpuppetry”. For the uninitiated, “sockpuppetry” is essentially the practice of altering Wikipedia articles to make a company, person or client look better from a PR perspective. Wikipedia’s concern about this practice, is that it … Continue Reading
Thinking about entering the Australian franchise market? The following legal issues need to be thought about before any action is taken. Entering the market without dealing with these issues first will create legal problems and unexpected expenses later in the process.… Continue Reading
This post is also available in Spanish. Copyright owners will welcome a recent ruling of Europe’s highest court which confirmed that they may bring proceedings in their home courts for online copyright infringement against infringers based elsewhere. This gives copyright holders the home advantage in terms of familiarity with language and court procedure and lower … Continue Reading
On 13 November 2013, the German Federal Supreme Court of Justice redefined a decade-long principle of German copyright law greatly improving copyright protection for applied or commercial art. Traditionally, works of applied art (i.e. designs of everyday things) had to pass a higher threshold of originality in order to be protected under copyright law. … Continue Reading
Branding is the key to commercial success in sport. Just think: where would the New York Yankees be without their iconic NY logo? Or the Chicago Bulls without their iconic bull’s head? How much money would the Australian Football League (AFL) make if they didn’t own the logos for every team, and couldn’t sell official … Continue Reading
WIPO has released its latest global intellectual property report, with a focus on branding activities of organisations in the global marketplace. The report’s title is Brands: Reputation and Image in the Global Marketplace and provides new information about how global companies use their brands. For legal practitioners, in-house counsel and employees working in the branding space, it … Continue Reading
Here at the Squire Sanders IP&T blog, we noticed that WIPO have updated their website. We’re pretty impressed with the new sleek WIPO landing page. We’re interested to know what you think. Do you think the new WIPO website is easier to use? Would you have done it differently? Do you also think it looks eerily … Continue Reading
