Tag: infringement

“13 Reasons Why” to watch Article 13 – Copyright reform in the European Union

Posted onAuthorLuke Hawthorne

Last week, a plenary session of the European Parliament has voted to adopt changes to the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (or the Copyright Directive for short), that was first introduced by the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs on 20 June 2018.

The Copyright Directive contains a number of sections that have been extremely polarising – critics argue that the Copyright Directive will encourage a form of censorship while supporters argue that the Copyright Directive will protect the works of artists and creators. One of the most contentious parts of the Copyright Directive is Article 13. read more…

‘Sexy’ stamp leaves United States Postal Service blushing  

Posted onAuthorVerdi Guy

The United States Government, acting through the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been ordered to pay US $3.5 million for copyright infringement after accidentally using a replica Statue of Liberty on its 2011 Forever Stamp.  The creator of the replica sculpture, Robert S. Davidson, brought a claim against the United States for infringing his read more…

Promises, promises: Full Federal Court of Australia finds invention useful in ESCO Corporation v Ronneby Road

Posted onAuthorDaniellé Sharplin

We can all be guilty of promising more than we can deliver – but for a patentee, that can be fatal for the validity of your patent.  Under Australian patent law, inventions must be ‘useful’ in order to be patentable, and one of the complex elements of this requirement is whether any promises made with read more…

Gotta catch ‘em all – Pokémon Company International, Inc. v Redbubble Ltd

Posted onAuthorAnn-Kathrin Goller

In the battle against copyright infringement in the online world, rights holders are increasingly targeting aggregators and disseminators of infringing content, rather than doing battle with individual infringers themselves. In a recent example of this, Pokémon Company International (Pokémon) won in their Federal Court pursuit of copyright infringement claims and breach of consumer protection laws read more…

Scrambling for the win: Mattel and Zynga in the UK Court of Appeal

Posted onAuthorEmily Rich

Toy manufacturing giant Mattel has won out in the final round of its recent dispute with social game services provider Zynga (of Farmville and Words with Friends fame) in the United Kingdom Court of Appeal. Overturning the decision of the High Court, the Court of Appeal found that Mattel owned a valid trade mark for read more…

Licensees beware – are you exclusive?

Posted onAuthorSuzy Madar

The Full Federal Court confirmed last week in BMS v Apotex that where a patent licence reserves some rights to be exercised by the licensor, the licensee will not have standing to sue and claim damages as an “exclusive licensee”. Importantly, in infringement proceedings, a patentee can only claim damages for damage suffered by itself read more…