SpicyIP Highlight of the Week!
We, at SpicyIP, were quite happy to see IPKat’s appreciation for our work on the blog here. (Though, we would like to mention again that as much as we’d like to have actually ‘sponsored’ them, we were only involved in a cross media partnership with INTA). IPKat, as always, continues to provide inspiration with their phenomenal blogging.
Incidentally, INTA’s 136th Annual Meeting which was held this year in Hong Kong from May
10th to May 14th witnessed the presence of a very distinguished member of the IPKat team, Mr. Neil Wilkof. Our readers would be happy to know that Neil and Shamnad have co-authored a book, ‘Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights’ (published by Oxford University Press) which was exhibited at INTA’s annual meet and the draft version of its India chapter is also available for free download; you can read Shamnad’s post on this here.
The last two weeks at SpicyIP were unusually slow.
The IT Legal Summit 2014 was conducted successfully in Bengaluru on May 22nd.
Recently, the Delhi HC in Jagdamba Impex v. Tristar Products Pvt. Ltd. examined the applicability of section 15(2) of The Copyright Act, 1957; this was covered by Mathews here.
The Delhi HC also decided an important appeal earlier this month in Iftekhar v. Karim Hotels Pvt. Ltd. The case which was covered by Gopika here is important in a number of ways:
It deals with the issue of ownership of trademarks and reaffirms the privileged position that the Court accords to registration of trademarks, even where such registration is invalid.
We would also like to inform our readers that Global Institute of Intellectual Property (GIIP) is offering PG Diploma Course in IPR and Patent Management which starts on 14th July, 2014; those interested may register by 30th May. Further details are available here.
International Developments
Some of the more interesting developments which took place internationally are:
- At a time, when YouTube is acting on complaints from film producers and tightening the noose around copyright infringement, it is heartening to see that Disney is “letting it go”– the song ‘Let it Go’ from the 2013 film ‘Frozen’ has been the subject of many a fan-created parodies and Disney (the producer of the film) has taken a very tolerant view towards this, thereby allowing fans to freely upload parodies and homages.
- Japan is all set to receive its first ever 3-D trademark in the shape of a vehicle. The Japan Patent Office would be granting a three-dimensional trademark registration to Honda Motor Co. in the shape of the company’s Super Club motorcycle.
- After Google’s failed attempts last month to trademark ‘Glass’ for its wearable computer ‘Google Glass’, Samsung recently applied for a trademark on ‘Gear Blink’, thereby hinting at plans to launch Glass’ competitor.
- The 13th session of WIPO’s Committee on Intellectual Property and Development (CIPD) was held from 19th to 23rd May which culminated in little consensus between participating countries.
- In a move which will encourage more copyright cases involving decades-old works of art, the US Supreme Court has reversed a Ninth Circuit ruling that the defense of laches can be invoked in the case Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (popularly known as ‘The Raging Bulls’ case).
- Last week, the World Health Assembly (WHA 67) reached a consensus endorsing delinkage of R&D costs from product prices. (We would be carrying a post on this soon).
With this, we end our SpicyIP Weekly Reviews. To get round-the-clock updates of spicy IP developments, subscribe today to SpicyIP and also visit us on Facebook.
