IP Review
IP Review is a monthly round-up of what's going on in the world of IP, reporting on news regarding trademarks, patents, copyright, design rights and other forms of intellectual property from publications the world over.
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News Archive31 July: Procol Harum pays out 40% royalties
Matthew Fisher, the artist behind the distinctive organ part on Procol Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, has won the rights to share 40% of the song’s future royalties in a ruling by the House of Lords.
The Times
27 July: Dispute over Olympic logo
Organisers of the London Olympics are threatening legal action against a Waltham Cross removal firm which uses the famous five-ring symbol as its logo, and has done for 22 years.
Hertfordshire Mercury
25 July: Whirlpool loses trademark appeal to Kenwood
The Appeal Court has dismissed Whirlpool’s allegation that Kenwood has drawn, or is likely to draw, any commercial advantage from the perceived similarity of their respective food mixer products.
Lawdit
21 July: Michael Jackson’s ‘dance’ patent
Not only was Michael Jackson the owner and creator of valuable copyright but he was also the little-known creator of a patent, protecting his gravity defying method of dancing to ‘Smooth Criminal’.
Google
18 July: National Portrait Gallery vs Wikipedia
A PhD student from Seattle is facing legal action from the National Portrait Gallery in London for downloading 3,000 high quality images of the gallery’s paintings onto Wikipedia, thereby denying the gallery royalty income from the images. Wikipedia is supporting the student, Derrick Coetzee.
Independent
17 July: Tiffany courts eBay
Oral arguments have been heard in the potential landmark case that could insist eBay does more to prevent the counterfeit trade of Tiffany and other branded goods.
Law.com
16 July: RIM settles BlackBerry dispute
Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry device, has agreed to pay Visto $267.5m to settle an ongoing patent dispute. In return, RIM will receive a royalty-free license of Visto’s disputed patents.
Reuters
09 July: DC Comics wins Superman case
A Los Angeles court has ruled that the estate of Superman creator, Jerome Spiegel, is not entitled to further remuneration generated by the most recent Superman film.
New York Times
08 July: Mars’ Bounty loses trademark battle
Mars has lost its bid to register the shape of its Bounty chocolate bar in Europe. The European Court of First Instance ruled that Bounty’s “rounded ends of the bar and the three arrows or chevrons on top of it, cannot be sufficiently distinguished from other shapes commonly used for chocolate bars.”
Telegraph
03 July: Chanel’s trademark use letter
Chanel, the fashion brand, has published an ad in Women's Wear Daily explaining exactly what Chanel is and how its trademark should and should not be referred to…
Gawker
03 July: Dutch brewer wins Bavaria trademark dispute
The ECJ has ruled that Dutch brewer Bavaria is entitled to continue using its ‘Bavaria’ trademark. This, despite the EU awarding PGI status in 2001 to ‘Bavaria’ or ‘Bavarian beer’, giving brewers in the southern German state exclusive rights to the term.
Financial Times
02 July: Twitter tries to trademark ‘Tweet’
Twitter is trying to trademark the term ‘Tweet’ to protect its brand. This will not effect Twitter applications such as TweetDeck, TweetMeme and Tweetie which would otherwise potentially infringe Twitters’ trademark.
PC Mag
01 July: The Birmingham Balti?
Birmingham City Council is considering applying for protected geographical (PGI) trademark status for the term Balti, claiming it is as unique to Birmingham as pork pies are to Melton Mowbray or Champagne is to the French region.
BBC
01 July: Bond rights owner loses Dr No trademark dispute
The owner of the James Bond intellectual property rights has failed to block the registration of the Community trademark ‘Dr. No’.
OHIM
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