Colleagues and clients alike often comment on the varied, topical and evolving nature of my field of expertise, IP law, as evidenced from my articles over the years. IP is a field of law that’s forever growing, highly relevant, often fascinating and which deals with everyday tangible issues, brands and products that we encounter in the marketplace and media. Three recent news stories show just how much IP intersects with other worlds ...
Two unusual copyright stories are back in the news.The first is the one that involves a monkey, a selfie and a copyright dispute. British photographer David Slater visited Indonesia to photograph the endangered crested black macaque, seemingly with a view to highlighting the species’ plight. During the course of taking his photos, Slater left his camera on a tripod, apparently hoping that the macaques might take selfies. One took the bait and the image became a sensation ...
The Luxembourg law on the exploration and use of space resources entered into force on 2 August 2017 and placed Luxembourg among the most innovative space-oriented nations in the world. The new law provides a legal framework for the “new space” activities. It aims at the further development of the constantly growing Luxembourg space industry employing already more than 700 highly skilled workers ...
It's a quiet Friday afternoon edging uneventfully toward the end of the day when a client calls: they’re interested in acquiring a U.S.-based widget maker. After your internal conflict check clears, reality hits – what do you do now? Whether your client is a foreign (non-U.S.) business targeting a U.S.-based company, or the U.S. target of a foreign purchaser, your deal may have Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) implications ...
A recent decision from the Eastern District of Kentucky doubles as a primer on the enforcement of FCA releases in settlement agreements. Courts often invalidate post-filing FCA releases—those executed after a qui tam lawsuit has already been filed—reasoning that, by statute, a relator cannot release claims that belong to the government ...
Most employers are familiar with Glassdoor, Inc.’s website, which allows current and former employees to post anonymous reviews of an employer. But Glassdoor is often a thorn in the side of employers because many negative posts are the result of disgruntled employees or competitors seeking an advantage in recruiting ...
A recent Tenth Circuit decision shines light on a new avenue to challenge cannabis businesses, even in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal. Although the potential federal criminal threat to cannabis businesses in states that have legalized medical or recreational cannabis has been relatively well-discussed, the potential civil threat has received little attention. In Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper, 859 F.3d 865 (10th Cir ...
On July 18, the Board of Supervisors passed a new law that changes the affordable housing requirements relating to the construction of market rate units. The new law affects new market rate housing developments of 25 or more dwellings units and expands the amount of affordable housing that will be oriented toward the middle income wage earner ...
We’ve written a fair bit about copyright recently, and much of our focus has been on how the digital age has brought about a marked change in attitude towards copyright (often bordering on ignorance), and has made copyright infringement much easier. In this article, we look at two further examples that reflect this trend. We also look at proposed changes to South African copyright law.The first of our examples deals with sharing images ...
A highly unusual thing about Google, which according to Brand Finance has now become the world’s most valuable brand (USD109.4-billion), is that it is seemingly able to defy the rule that if your trade mark becomes a verb, you’ve pretty much lost the trade mark because it’s become generic ...
A recent decision involving registered designs is a reminder of how useful design law can be, in the sense that it can be used to protect an almost limitless range of products. The decision in the UK case of Ahmet Erol v Sumaira Javaid (Design) (a decision of the Appointed Person, 18 May 2017) does not create any law, but it does illustrate two things. The first is how registered designs can often be very low-tech ...
An increasing number of African companies do business in the Far East, and many of them register their trade marks in the region’s major markets. So, it’s interesting to look at trade mark developments in the major markets from time-to-time. In this article, we look at some recent decisions in China, India and Japan. China China is probably the major market for most African companies and we have discussed Chinese trade mark issues in a number of our articles ...
The pieces of the puzzle are finally falling into place. The long-awaited level 3 and 4 measures have been published earlier this week, half a year before the PRIIPs KID becomes compulsory.On 4 July 2017 the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published a Questions and Answers document related to the PRIIPs KID which reverts to questions linked with the presentation, content and review of the KID, including the methodologies underpinning the risk, reward and costs information ...
On 9 November 2016, a notice was published by the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the “DTI”), in terms of which the DTI proposed that all major broad-based black economic empowerment (“B-BBEE”) ownership transactions, as per code 100 of the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice, which equal or exceed ZAR100-million, calculated by either combining the annual turnover of both entities or their asset values (the “Proposed Threshold”), must
Last month, the Supreme Court decided TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, which narrowed the definition of where a corporate defendant "resides" for the purpose of suing it for patent infringement. In doing so, it overturned the 1994 holding of the Federal Circuit of what constitutes proper venue in patent infringement cases. Federal law allows a Plaintiff to bring a patent infringement suit against a defendant in any district where one of two conditions are met ...
In May 2017, the Israeli Innovation Authority (the successor of the Office of Chief Scientist), a division of the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry (the "Innovation Authority"), issued new rules1 becoming applicable to Israeli companies that receive grants from the Innovation Authority ("Funded Companies") ...
The San Francisco Building Code now has new requirements for regular facade inspections and maintenance of facades of certain kinds of older buildings. Although signed into law by Mayor Lee earlier this year, this new law (entitled "Building Facade Inspection and Maintenance – Retroactive Provisions") has received little public attention even though the City believes that a little over three thousand buildings are affected ...
The Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions Act), 2017, enacted on 16 May 2017, aims to give new impetus to investment by creating a more favourable environment to doing business in Mauritius. It seeks to do away with regulatory and administrative constraints (whether at the outset or on an ongoing basis), and promotes a modern and digital business environment by bringing significant amendments and innovations to 26 pieces of legislation ...
We trade mark lawyers like to tell our clients to take their brands seriously: adopt trade marks that are distinctive and therefore easy to protect; do trade mark searches; and register in all the countries where the trade marks are used. Clients sometimes roll their eyes when they hear this. But, fortunately for us lawyers, there’s a constant stream of big name trade mark scare stories in the media ...
Two recent news reports give some useful insight into the commercialisation of trade marks and its relevance to public utilities. The first report was in UK newspaper The Guardian. Entitled "Mine the Gap", it dealt with the fact that Transport for London ("TFL"), the authority that’s responsible for London’s tube and bus network, is involved in an ambitious trade mark licensing project. The authority recognises that it has some very valuable trade marks ...
As anyone who’s interested in trade mark law knows, it is possible to protect product shapes through trade mark registrations, but it isn’t easy. In some countries, it’s particularly difficult, as two recent cases show. Vespa Let's start with the positive news. Piaggio recently secured an important victory in its home country, with an Italian court ruling that a three-dimensional trade mark registration for the shape of the famous Vespa scooter is valid ...
