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Apple WWDC 2014: what the patents say we can expect
What’s this? IPcopy doing an Apple patent themed post the week that the Worldwide Developer Conference starts? This couldn’t be a shameless SEO exercise could it? *
The WWDC, for those of you that don’t know, is Apple’s annual event for the software side of their business and a week long geekfest for those developers lucky enough to score one of the 5000 (or so) tickets on offer.
For the rest of us, the WWDC links in to that point of the year when speculation about Apple’s next products and services begins to ramp up. The WWDC is normally the point at which Apple fanbois find out what features the next version of the iOS operating system will be sporting in the next couple of months. For everyone else the WWDC is a chance to practice their best Apple put-downs and then to have a look over the feature list to find out what features their non iDevice might be sporting in the next 6 months….[Note to lawyers: that was a joke].
So, what do the patents suggest we could be seeing for iOS8?
Black and White Trade Marks – Change in OHIM/IPO Practice
Following on from our recent blog item detailing the changes in dealing with colour marks at the UK IPO and OHIM, we would like to now consider how these decisions will affect our filing practice in respect of new trade mark applications.
Previously, it was common practice to file for a trade mark in black and white, or grey scale, in order to obtain the broadest protection possible. It was accepted that a mark registered in black and white would allow the proprietor to use the mark in colour and maintain protection. Essentially, it allowed for one application to be filed in black and white, instead of numerous applications for various colour combinations. (more…)
Top Tip from the “Read the Manual” Archive – EPO Opposition Data on the Register
“Can I tell how many times a company (as a patent proprietor) has been opposed in EPO Opposition proceedings?”
This was the question that ipcopykaya and I considered late last Friday. Although the use of Google Patents was suggested we wondered whether the European Patent Register would provide us with the capability to search a particular Applicant and filter the results by opposed cases.
The EP Patents Register Advanced Search Menu is shown below. As indicated in the figure, it is possible to search for instances of a particular individual or company as Opponent. (more…)
Unitary patent: Danish Referendum – “Yes” vote
Yesterday, 25th May 2014, Denmark held a referendum on joining the Unified Patent Court. Out of just over 2.3 million votes cast, 62.5% voted in favour of joining the Unified Patent Court. The Danish parliament is now free to complete ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement and, eventually, deposit its instrument of ratification with the EU Commission. Currently only Austria and France have made such a deposit.
The Wikipedia page covering the Danish referendum is here. Commissioner Barnier also issued a Press Release in which he stated: (more…)
Unitary patent system – Scuttlebutt*
There’s not been much hard news recently regarding the unitary patent system so we’re going to take a leaf out of the 24 Hour Rolling News Playbook and start speculating away until something actually happens again….. (more…)
Rules for Playing Nicely – EU Commission and injunctions for Standards Essential Patents
The CJEU prepare to hand down their decision in Huawei v. ZTT (Image via Creative Commons Licence; Author Magnus Manske)
A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma – Churchill may have been talking about Russia, but when I hear this phrase FRAND licensing is more likely to come to mind, and more particularly, FRAND licensing for standards essential patents (SEPs). It must have all sounded so straightforward once – all the standards bodies agreed that you could bring your patents to the party, you would license them to all your competitors, you’d get a royalty back to compensate you for your R&D efforts, and it would all be fair, reasonable… and nice – well, technically “non-discriminatory”, but “nice” seems to get the wooliness of the intention over better – with the end result of a collection of patents all licensed to the rest of the industry under FRAND terms. It all seemed so reasonable that an engineer at the standards meeting could concentrate on reaching the best technical solution (his or hers, obviously…) without any thought to yucky patent stuff.
Yeah, right. It hasn’t been nice for a while – not a surprise, as a requirement to license SEPs on FRAND terms is little more than an agreement to make SEPs Someone Else’s Problem and not an issue for the standards body concerned. Despite a good twenty years of fractious patent disputes about SEPs and FRAND licensing absorbing vast quantities of legal effort – I’ve spent many hours on the DRAM and 802.11a patent sagas alone, and I was barely on the fringes of both – many key questions, such as how FRAND license royalties should be calculated and just what a patent proprietor is entitled to do up to the point where a licensing target becomes a paid-up licensee, have nebulous answers at best. (more…)
Patent Box and UK secrecy orders
The interaction between the Patent Box regime and UK patent applications subject to directions under section 22 of the Patents Act may seem like a bit of a niche interest area, but never let it be said that IPcopy isn’t willing to poke into the darkest, dustiest corners of IP trivia to get to the truth….
When I joined the patent profession I worked for the Ministry of Defence’s Intellectual Property Department. That fact means that whenever someone runs into a question about the defence industry, Defcons or whether patent applications that are subject to “secrecy orders” can take advantage of the patent box regime all eyes seem to turn towards me.
So, the question having been asked, I did some digging….
IP Bill becomes the Intellectual Property Act 2014
[Update 19.5.2014: the Intellectual Property Act 2014 has now appeared on the legislation.gov.uk website and can be accessed here]
The Intellectual Property Bill left the “ping pong” stage last month after the House of Lords approved the amendments made to the Bill by the House of Commons. Yesterday evening, the IP Bill received Royal Assent to pass into law as the Intellectual Property Act 2014 (House of Lords Hansard; Parliament (Intellectual Property Act 2014)).
As noted on the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website it is expected that some measures within the Act will come into force in October 2014, with all the measures being implemented by late 2015. (more…)
“Say cheese” – Amazon’s studio photography patent
This item was written for and originally appeared on the 2paragraphs website which covers news stories in, um, two paragraphs….
In the last week news outlets have carried a story that Amazon has been granted a patent for taking a photograph against a white background. However, as is usual in cases where patent related news intersects with the mainstream media, the reported story is not nearly so sensational as some of the headlines (1, 2, 3) that have been doing the rounds would have you believe. Although Amazon’s patent relates to the taking of photographs against a background in a studio, what most of the news items fail to point out is that the actual scope of protection for this idea is far far narrower, as can be seen by reading the long list of elements contained in the patent’s independent claims (see claims 1, 2 and 25 of US8676045). Possibly a slightly more interesting question (only slightly mind, we are talking patent law here!) is why Amazon may have applied for a patent in the first place. (more…)
A Keltie Wedding at INTA 2014
Tweets emanating from INTA 2014 in Hong Kong have, so far, shared a common theme: “it’s raining”, “it’s pouring”, “the old m…”, well, you get the picture! So it is with great pleasure that we can offer a delightful counterpoint by congratulating Keltie’s Sean Cummings who got married today. Congratulations from everyone back here in London to Sean and Vivienne!
Here’s a few photos of the happy couple. (more…)
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