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Croatia to join EU July 2013 – Impact on Community Trade Marks and Designs
Territorial Expansion of the Community Trade Mark and Community Design Systems
On 1 July 2013, Croatia will join the European Union with the result that, from that date, existing and new Community Trade Marks (CTMs), as well as unregistered and Registered Community Designs, will have their coverage expanded to that country.
This expansion of protection will occur automatically, without the need for owners of CTMs and Community Designs to take any action, nor pay any fees.
Design Treaty Comes of Age
For many The Hague Agreement for the international protection of industrial designs is one of those backwaters of IP law, a bit of a niche interest like the UPOV treaty for protection of plant varieties. However, this modest sibling of the PCT and Madrid Protocol won a major endorsement on 18 December 2012 when President Obama signed it into US law as part of the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act.
Apple Apology – Text of Judgment available
As noted in earlier posts (here and here) the statement Apple posted to their website wasn’t exactly what the judges in the Court of Appeal had in mind. The full text of the judgment following Samsung’s complaint is now available here. It is well worth a read and almost relentless in its disapproval of Apple’s actions.
The current version of the Apple website links to the intended wording. Or you could try this.
Apple “Apology”
As noted in many recent news stories, Apple has now included a link on their UK website to a page explaining the outcome of their recent Court of Appeal decision in the UK. The link on their front page has been located in such a way as to provide a sort of “Where’s Wally?” experience when you try and find it.
Clicking on the link takes you to a page completely devoid of Apple branding. There are six paragraphs of text on this page, paragraphs 1 and 5 being the text specified by the judge in the UK court case. Paragraphs, 2, 3, 4 and 6 have been added by Apple. When I look at the page, I can’t help seeing it like this:
IP Hit or Miss?
Ever been watching a film or something on TV and noticed that the intellectual property (IP) reference that just cropped up in the script is wrong? No? Well, you probably manage to get out more than me.
To this author at least (patent attorney, tech nerd and SF geek) references to patents, trade marks and the like seem to pop up quite frequently in the entertainment media.
IP Hit or Miss? is an occasional series of articles that takes a light-hearted look at IP as it appears in the media (films, TV, news reports etc) as an excuse to talk about different IP topics. A vague rating of “IP hit or miss?” may also be given depending on how well the particular IP concept has been incorporated into the media in question.
Want to suggest a film, TV show or other reference that we can take a look at? Drop us an email or leave a comment below.
It’s a question of design
Is this an iPad I see before me?
In the recently decided Samsung versus Apple case in the UK Court of Appeal, the court confirmed that Samsung did not infringe Apple’s registered Community Design No. 000181607-0001.
At paragraph 54 of the decision, Sir Robin Jacob stated: “If the registered design has a scope as wide as Apple contends it would foreclose much of the market for tablet computers. Alterations in thickness, curvature of the sides, embellishment and so on would not escape its grasp. Legitimate competition by different designs would be stifled”.
In light of the above and the decision as a whole it would appear the UK courts are going to give design registrations a fairly narrow scope.
How to avoid ‘Swiss-Cheese’ Registered Design Coverage in Europe
The European Union covers twenty seven member states at present. A single IP right for Registered Designs can be obtained relatively easily for low cost that will cover this whole area. However, if you take a look at the map of the EU it is apparent that there are several ‘holes’ in coverage for the non-EU countries in Europe. Key non-EU states includes Switzerland, Norway, Turkey and much of the former Yugoslavia, especially Croatia and Serbia. These countries can act as a source of parallel (so-called grey) imports into the EU and can be troublesome for IP holders who have rights limited to the EU. However, filling in these holes is actually a fairly straightforward matter and involves using the Hague System for International Design Registration.
IPcopy 