Please click here for the Winter 2015 edition of "IP Newsletter" – the intellectual property law update from Charles Russell Speechlys' Intellectual Property team. The newsletter details some recent important cases and key developments.

CONTENTS:

PATENTS

  • The recent Court of Appeal decision in Nampak Plastics Europe Ltd v Alpla UK Ltd may make it easier to obtain summary judgment in certain patent cases.
  • When Interim Injunctions Go Wrong in Multinational Patent Litigation
  • The Supreme Court rules that the illegality principle (ex turpi causa) is a rule of law which does not apply to patent infringement, only to criminal or quasi-criminal acts
  • ePCT-filing at EPO commenced from 1 November 2014

TRADE MARKS / PASSING OFF

  • The High Court grants orders requiring ISPs to block access to websites selling "infringing" goods
  • The Court of Appeal orders a retrial of keyword advertising dispute between Interflora and Marks & Spencer
  • The Court of Appeal agrees IDEAL HOME trade mark valid and not infringed – this was a case of honest, concurrent use and the defendant's use of the mark had not had, and would not have, an adverse effect on the essential function of the registered trade mark
  • Dalsouple – the High Court considers the meaning of "consent" in section 5(5) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 and rules that consent must be so expressed that an intention to renounce the consenter's rights was unequivocally demonstrated; an express statement of consent was sufficient here

COPYRIGHT

  • The IPEC rules that a fabric was not copied, but was in fact independently designed
  • Several music industry bodies have launched proceedings challenging the UK's new private copying rules, stating that the government should have included a mechanism for compensating rights holders as part of the new legislative regime
  • The dangers of misusing confidential information – damages of €10m; a sum the court considered "justified and proportionate"
  • High Court awards damages for breach of confidence in mosquito nets dispute, but declines to award a sum for accelerated entry into the market for nets made using an insecticide developed on the basis of the claimant's misused confidential information

DESIGNS

  • The Supreme Court grants Magmatic Ltd leave to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision regarding the Community registered design for the Trunki ride-on suitcase

OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST - IN BRIEF

  • The High Court has awarded remedies (including an injunction, a publicity order and an interim payment of £100,000) for infringement of the GLEE trade mark
  • Thomas Pink's registered trade mark PINK – order for interim costs. Under new costs budgeting regime the "irreducible minimum" of 90% of budgeted costs
  • Could free WiFi providers be liable for copyright infringement? The CJEU has apparently been asked to consider this very point, and provide guidance on whether the 'mere conduit' defence applies to service providers of free WiFi networks
  • Orphan works licensing scheme appeal guidance now published
  • New OHIM FastTrack procedure for CTMs

A ROUND UP OF SOME RECENT TRADE MARK REGISTRATION DECISIONS

  • LOVOL and VOLVO – held no visual similarity, no aural or conceptual similarity and opposition by Volvo dismissed
  • Single wavy line – held devoid of distinctive character and not distinctive through use
  • "Rubik's Cube" - is a valid shape mark!

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.