On 25 January 2016, Botswana’s Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (“the CIPA”) issued a notice informing the public that it is not currently able to conduct hearings for trade mark oppositions and invalidations as a result of the recent restructuring of the Botswana Intellectual Property Office. The restructure led to the loss of staff responsible for the processing of opposition hearings and invalidations ...
Background The ‘ball’ in this case started ‘rolling’ when Rothschild presented his MetaBirkins collection at Art Basel Miami in December 2021 and began selling it through NFT platforms like OpenSea. The collection consisted of 100 NFTs with digital images of Hermès Birkin bags in various designs. The starting price for one copy was 0.1 ETH (about $450 at the time). The artist was said to have soon sold more than $1 million worth of digital handbags ...
In the decision Beijing Judian Restaurant Co. Ltd. v. Wei Meng, 2022 FC 743, rendered by the Honourable Angela Furlanetto on May 18, 2022, the Federal Court clarified what constitutes bad faith in trademark law. Prior to the decision, the concept of bad faith in relation to trademarks was interpreted rather cautiously in Canadian jurisprudence. Background Beijing Judian Restaurant Co. Ltd ...
We are very excited to be supporting the UN Global Compact Network UK’s ‘Transitioning to a Net Zero’ webinar series ...
Like many other governments, the Government of Quebec decided to invest in infrastructure to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and stimulate Quebec’s economy. A significant number of investments will be made in the transportation sector, and the government wants to accelerate the realisation of several previously announced transportation infrastructure projects in the greater Montréal area ...
This article has been updated based on the available information until 20th February 2021. As Government notifications are constantly revised, it is advisable to consult your attorney or visit the website of the relevant Government agency prior to travelling. Further, in additional to the guidelines published by the Central Government, passengers are also requested to refer to State specific official websites to be well informed about any additional requirements ...
On March 30, 2020, the Department of the Treasury published guidelines and procedures for passenger and cargo air carriers (together, “Air Carriers”) seeking relief under the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act ...
Yesterday, Shoosmiths hosted an event by The Fashion Network titled ‘Trend Forecasting & Analysis Masterclass: For Fashion & FMCG Retail Business’. During this event we heard from fashion industry leaders on how the landscape of retail and marketing is ever evolving, influenced by a myriad of factors ranging from consumer behaviour to emerging technologies ...
Australia's Federal Court finds in favour of Nine newspapers against Ben Roberts-Smith. The judgement is a win for investigative journalism and the public’s right to know. Defence was lead by Peter Bartlett, MinterEllison. Nine newspapers’ victory in the Ben Roberts Smith vs Nine defamation case strengthens a core principle of journalism, and key tenant of democracy, which is the public’s right to know ...
The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, fondly known as TTB, issued final rules that contain a few game-changers for the alcoholic beverage manufacturing industry. We are particularly fond of the greater flexibility offered to distilleries. Distilleries can now count the years bourbon or whisky are aged in used barrels. Previously, a whisky or bourbon could only list the number of years aged in new oak barrels ...
According to recent reports, it seems to be that an exciting update in the aviation world might be waiting around the corner. More precisely, it has been circulated in the media that the global giant and world's fastest growing airline, Turkish Airlines, is contemplating the acquisition of Croatia's national carrier – Croatia Airlines ...
A recent posting on a popular intellectual property (IP) blog raised an issue that’s becoming increasingly important in the couch-potato / global- village world we now live in: what, if any, legal protection does a TV format enjoy? In South Africa we often watch local versions of foreign TV programs, be they ‘reality’ shows like Big Brother or Come Dine WithMe, ‘talent’ shows like Idols or Masterchef,or game shows like The Weakest L
On February 15, 2024, the United States Copyright Office published a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing to create a new group registration option for published two-dimensional artwork. Currently, the Copyright Office permits group registration of up to ten unpublished two-dimensional artworks, and it also permits the registration of individual published two-dimensional artworks ...
The U.S. Department of State has released details on a proposed pilot program testing the agency’s ability to resume domestic visa renewals for certain nonimmigrant visa categories and to study the effect the program has on reducing visa wait times worldwide. The program will begin on January 29, 2024 and end on April 1, 2024 ...
According to the advocate general’s opinions in C-434/15 Elite Taxi and C-320/16 Uber France, Uber does not provide information society services, but local transport services which may be regulated by EU member states. It has been more than ayear since we signalled that the Court of Justice of the European Union would need to resolve the legal classification of the services provided by Uber ...
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published the Creative Industries Sector Deal aimed at making the UK the best place in the world for businesses in the creative industries. This is the latest sector deal to flow from the government's Industrial Strategy White Paper after sector deals for life sciences and the automotive industry were announced in late 2017/early 2018, respectively ...
The UK now has one publicly accessible charge point for every 11.2 Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) on the road, having seen a remarkable 70% jump in charge points over the past year. The figures, utilised in the calculation of the Electric Vehicle Country Attractiveness (EVCA) Index developed by Cornwall Insight and law firm Shoosmiths, demonstrate the substantial impact of the government's ongoing efforts to expand the charging infrastructure network ...
Two Montréal landmarks have proudly hosted some of the city?s most memorable sporting events. The Olympic Stadium and the IGA Stadium (Figures 1 and 2), which have been and remain quintessential in our sporting history, are in need of renovations so that sports fans can continue to ?raise the roof? for years to come. Figure 1: The Olympic Stadium: A prominent feature of the Montréal skyline. Figure 2: The National Bank Open at the IGA stadium ...
The Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 (the “Regulations”) implement certain basic informational requirements that bus operators of local services need to implement in their vehicles in order to improve the accessibility of information for passengers on local bus services ...
A South African university has successfully objected to a domain name that incorporates the university’s nickname.North-West University (“NWU”), once an exclusively Afrikaans-language institution that’s situated in the city of Potchefstroom, and that was formerly known as the Potchefstroom University College – or PUK – for short (the Afrikaans word for “college” starts with “k”), opposed a registration for the domain name propuk.co.za ...
This fall, an outbreak of lung illnesses allegedly related to vaping ignited public hysteria and legislative reactions in many states. The vaping and cannabis industries are already paying, and will continue to pay, high reputational and policy costs associated with these events, and the industries should also be aware that the widespread nature of reported injuries could lead to a substantial amount of costly mass tort litigation ...
The European Commission has made a proposal for a directive that is intended to update copyright law to cope with the modern age in which online services are becoming increasingly important. The proposal is part of the 'Digital Single Market Strategy' of the EU: a set of initiatives to create a free trans-border market for online trade and content. The proposed directive (“DSM directive”) supplements the current Copyright Directive with a number of regulations ...
UPDATE - On March 20 in the evening, Governor Wolf issued a revised list classifying businesses as life-sustaining and non-life-sustaining. The press release, list and frequently asked questions can be found here. In addition, Governor Wolf has extended the timeframe for enforcement of the order. The Pennsylvania General Assembly recently completed the Appropriations hearings related to the FY 2020-2021 budget. The plans to resume the legislative session were altered due to COVID-19 ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on countless businesses around the United States, including breweries. During this time, its understandable many businesses have allowed their trademark deadlines to pass without action due to lack of funds. In light of these hardships, the US Trademark Office has announced that if a business allowed a deadline to pass due to COVID-19, it will waive/refund any fees to Petition to Revive the abandoned application or registration ...
