TWELFTH MAN DISPUTE SETTLES; LATEST ECDR

Twelfth man dispute settles

The IPKat is again grateful to Lee Curtis for letting him know, via MSNBC, that the fight over the “12th Man” name (see earlier IPKat post here) is over and both Texas A&M and the Seattle Seahawks will be able to use the phrase. Texas A&M and the Seahawks have reached a deal settling the university’s lawsuit over the nickname for their fans. As part of the agreement, the Seahawks acknowledge Texas A&M’s ownership rights of the trade mark-protected phrase. However, the NFL team may continue using it under licence. Neither side admitted any fault or liability.

Other Twelfth Men here, here and here
Twelve Angry Men here


Latest ECDR

The May 2006 issue of Sweet & Maxwell's bimonthly European Copyright and Design Reports has been released. It contains just three cases, but one of them is pretty huge:

* MCMD (Cini Boeri) v GG and Studio GG, from the Court of Milan, Italy, involving infringement issues arising from the unauthorised publication of photographs of a villa;

* SA Creditinfor v Artprice.com (Cour d'appel de Paris, France), on infringement and the calculation of damages in respect of copyright and sui generis database right infringement;

* Attheraces Ltd v British Horseracing Board (High Court, England and Wales), a long and complex decision in which a refusal to supply and license the use of data on reasonable terms was held to be an abuse of dominant position and thus contrary to competition law.

As usual, if you know of any significant European copyright case that should be considered for inclusion in the ECDR, IPKat co-blogmeister Jeremy would love to hear from you: contact him here.