The Collective Rights Management Directive was implemented yesterday, giving rightsholders greater control and oversight over the Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) organisations responsible for licensing and royalty distribution. 

Royalties to be tamed but not just domestic

The new Directive, which aims to harmonise aspects of the way CMOs work and create a more transparent framework, is part of the wider Europe 2020 Strategy for a strong Digital Single Market. It is hoped to improve control of rights by rightsholders, payment of royalties in a timely, accurate manner, decision making and all-round transparency. 

Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Minister for Intellectual Property, said:

"This is great news for UK rights holders who deserve to be paid accurately and promptly for their work. I am certain that the increased oversight and transparency offered to artists will improve the standards of collective management organisations across Europe, and make the entire process run more smoothly. It is right that artists have more choice over who manages their work and how they do it". 

For more see the press release here and the text of the Directive, here.

European Intellectual Property Teachers' Network  (EIPTN Ltd) are holding their ninth annual workshop on July 4th and 5th at State University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Sofia Bulgaria, EIPTN is multi-disciplinary, and aims to bring together IP teachers from across Europe to exchange ideas on best practice in intellectual property teaching and learning activities, with support from the European Patent Academy of the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Academy of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). To participate in the workshop and discuss best practice in IP teaching with a presentation or poster, submissions can be made here and the deadline is 29th April.


4th Annual Tel Aviv University Workshop for Junior Scholars - call for papers. The Tel Aviv University (TAU) Workshop invites submissions from junior scholars of IP with the theme of "Law in a Changing Society". The workshop itself is taking place on 21st-23rd November and the deadline for abstracts is May 16th. Find the call for papers with more information here.

Intellectual Property Law Committee (ILPC) vacancies. Katfriend Mark Anderson has alerted us to an opportunity at the ILPC of the Law Society of England and Wales. It is open to IP experts with an appetite for influencing the development of law and policy at the national and international level. There are four vacancies, offering an interesting and diverse workload. More information about the positions can be found on the IP Draughts blog here and applications can be made here.

Oxfirst Ltd webinar series: Patent Valuation. This Friday 15th April, Dr. Ednando Silva, Founder and Managing Director of RoyaltyStat & Dr. Roya Ghafele, Director of Oxfirst are presenting a webinar about the determination of a patent's value. You can register here,

Could eavesdropping be the new download?

3D Printers can be 'pirated' by audio recording.  According to research published in Science Magazine (here, and summarised here), it is possible to copy a 3D printed product with up to 92% accuracy simply by precisely recording the printer noises. This seems to be just one more concern to add to the growing list of uncertainties surrounding IP and 3D printing, on which see more here and here.

In "Jumpin' through hoops? A copyright claim that never got off the ground", this Kat hosted a guest contribution from Kevin Winters on a copyright infringement action brought by Jacobus Rentmeester against Nike on the basis that its iconic Michael Jordan "Jumpman" logo (left) infringed his copyright. Now there is a sequel. This Kat has been advised that the trade mark on the right, owned by Oxfordshire-based Orthomobility Ltd -- a company that makes prosthetic devices -- has been registered in Germany.  Thank you Edward Humphrey-Evans (Katpat!) for keeping us informed.


Around the weblogs 1.  One of the most entertaining items to appear on the copyright-focused 1709 Blog for a while is quite an unexpected one: Amanda Harcourt's review of Matthew Billy's podcast about ASCAP, the BMI and Sharkey the seal.  The same weblog carries an obituary for the United Kingdom's private copying exception, solemnly penned by Andy Johnstone.  IP Draughts' Mark Anderson voices some well-aimed criticism at a futile appeal in respect of an agreement governing a selection of Bob Marley works including No Woman, No Cry: "the court at first instance and the Court of Appeal had a relatively straightforward task to interpret the 1992 agreement, and they performed it well. No new point of law arises from the case. There is no guidance that needs to be given to drafters in light of the case. It is an illustration of how far a party is prepared to go to try to protect its business interests, by pursuing a dud case all the way to the Court of Appeal".


Around the weblogs 2. On the Class 46 European trade mark blog, Laetitia Lagarde writes up a neat little decision of the General Court to the effect that earlier MUSTANG word and figurative (right)marks for clothing would not be tarnished by the negative association of a later figurative mark containing the word MUSTANG for cigarettes. The Selvam and Selvam blog has drawn attention to the intention of the Indian Government to amend the Trade Mark Rules 2002 via  the Trade Mark Amendment Rules 2015. These propose, inter alia, to hike filing and prosecution fees by 100% and to empower the Registrar to determine certain marks as being well-known trade marks. Raja Selvam's post is here: objections and suggestions should be sent to the Additional Secretary to the Government of India at sahni.palka at nic.in by 18 December 2015.

UCL, on the road again ...

Homeless faculty teaches copyright, offers 29 CPD points.   Convened by the ever-excellent Amanda Harcourt, "Copyright Law: Meeting the Legal Needs of the Creative Industries in the 21st Century" is the title of a forthcoming course at University College London (UCL). Running from Monday 18 to Friday 22 January 2016, its aim is to help young practitioners, advising in accordance with current statutes and existing contracts, to look to the future and explore copyright and related laws in a digital context together with imminent legal developments. The Faculty includes fellow Kat Eleonora, 1709 Blogger John Enser (Olswang LLP), not to mention a healthy pawful of Katfriends.  Indeed, this Kat can vouch for the fact that the other speakers in this stellar faculty are very much worth hearing, too.  There's just one detail to bear in mind: if you are going to commit yourself, it's best not to delay too long since there's a deadline for registration. As the college explains:

As the UCL Law Faculty is currently virtually “homeless” because of building works, the Faculty will be securing an outside venue for this conference. Choice of venue will, naturally, be dependent upon numbers. As a consequence applications for entry from attendees will close on Wednesday 16 December 2015.

You can read more about the course content and download the brochure by simply clicking here.

Around the weblogs 1. From Paul Tijam and Hidde Koenraad comes this penetrating Class 99 design law post on the sort of issues that might be encountered if one's Community design registration is marked out with dotted lines as well as the more solid variety, if the dots are not intended for disclaimers.  Class 99's sister blog, the MARQUES Class 46 European trade mark blog, has a post from Katfriend Laetitia Lagarde on a bit of a battle between Monster Energy and MoMo Monsters: would you be confused by goods bearing those marks?  On the 1709 Blog, Anita Molinero's successful quest for damages in respect of the incineration of her art work by Champagne house Vranken Pommery was clearly a burning issue, as FrenchKat Asim Singh explains. The same blog carries a fine account of the Battle of the Bed Linen by Andy Johnstone, this being yet another case which, with the benefit of hindsight, might better have been settled without the need to go to court -- and Ben Challis asks about the status of a copy of a parody, in the context of the events subsequent to the launch in 1991 of the parody-friendly movie Point Break.



Around the weblogs 2.  Writing on IP Draughts, Mark Anderson poses the question whether contracts might be better interpreted by computers than by judges: says Merpel. since so many contracts she sees look as though they have been drafted by computers in the first place, this may not be such a far-fetched notion.  Elsewhere, following the lead of the IPKat, the Aistemos IP strategy and analytics blog has taken to posting its equivalent of our "Never Too Late" feature, summarising each month's blogposts for busy readers: here's its list of October posts. 



Around the weblogs 3.  Last Wednesday the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) and GRUR shared their sixth joint event, this being a seminar on Google, search engines and the impact, if any, of European competition law upon the company's colossal and apparently unassailable monopoly.  There was some high-octane debate, fuelled by the positively inflammatory contribution of Torsten Körber (Chair of Civil Law, Antitrust Law, Insurance Law, Corporate Law and Regulation Law, University of Göttingen). Torsten, who has represented Google in competition-related issues, argued that the European Commission had not even begun to make out a case against Google, even there had been one.  The event is recorded in two posts on the jiplp weblog. here and here.

Swissreg: a hole lot of fun

TMView now includes the Swiss register. As if they had read the recent IPKat post on TMView that noted the absence of the Swiss register from the TMView database, the Swiss suddenly announced that, on Monday, 26 October 2015, Switzerland had finally joined TMView. This is a particular useful addition. Since the Swiss national register Swissreg does not contain international marks with protection in Switzerland, one always had to search both WIPO and the national register.

GI Gorgonzola

While on the subject of online search, this Kat has learned that a special highlight of the Geographical Names conference which INTA is running next month (mentioned on this weblog last week here) is that INTA will be launching a new online searchable guide on Geographical Indications, Certification Marks and Collective Marks to coincide with this event.  Planned as a new online member resource, this search facility is aimed at assisting attorneys in determining how geographical indications, certification marks, and collective marks are protected in selected jurisdictions, whether by sui generis laws or other types of law.

The Agnietenkapel

Heart warming? No, patent warming! On Friday 18 December 2015 (1.00 pm – 2.00 pm), Lodewijk Pessers defends his dissertation ‘The Evolution of the Inventiveness Requirement’, which he wrote under the supervision of Bernt Hugenholtz (University of Amsterdam) and Sven Bostyn (Universities of Amsterda and Liverpool). This defence will take place in the Great Hall of the University of Amsterdam (Old Lutheran Church, Singel 411, 1012 XM Amsterdam). All are welcome. The next day (that's Saturday 19 if you can't work it out), the Institute for Information Law (IViR, University of Amsterdam) is holding an international symposium on the inventiveness requirement in patent law and its relationship with the global growth in patent grants. Speakers include Professor Rochelle Dreyfuss (NYU) and Professor Theo Bodewig (Humboldt University, Berlin). The symposium, bearing the title “Patent warming – is the inventive step analysis to blame?”, runs from 11.00 am – 4.30 pm at the Agnietenkapel (University of Amsterdam), Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231, Amsterdam. Entrance is free. Registration via ivir@ivir.nl is required. For more information click here.



"The Future of Fashion: Luxury, IP & Digital Technology" is the title of an event being held at Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design, London on Wednesday, 18 November 2015 from 18:30 to 20:30 under the aegis of Katfriend Tania Phipps-Rufus. If this is your scene, click here for the details.

Are you creating or disseminating information about IP? This year's IP Publishers and Editors Lunch on Wednesday 25 November is starting to fill up nicely, with people travelling from France and Germany to join this IPKat-led event, kindly hosted in the London office of Veale Wasburgh Vizards.  We're up to 25 registrants already and hope to beat the 50+ who came last year.  Keynote speaker this year is fellow blogger, editor and IP commentator Peter Groves. So, if you are involved in any facet of IP publishing, editing, blogging, press-releasing or information production and think this event might be for you, just click here for details.  It's fun -- and it's free!


When in Rome ... "The Geographical Names Conference: Protecting and Enforcing Geographic Names, GIs, Trademarks and Domain Names" is a conference that is very close to this Kat's heart.  He was closely involved with it in the planning stages and, were it not for post-retirement family commitments, he would have been participating in it too.  It's run by the International Trademark Association (INTA) and will be held in the beautiful city of Rome on 10 and 11 December.  Incidentally, it's not a US event or a European one -- its scope is international, with participation from major international agencies and institutions as well as representatives drawn from business and the professions.  Do check out the programme here. The early registration discount expires this coming Friday, 30 October so, if you know you'll be going, why not sign up now and save yourself some money?

Angela Merkel and a couple of Greek politicians

Around the weblogs 1. "10 points to look for in a draft agreement", offers Mark Anderson of IP Draughts (or maybe that should be 'Drafts' ...) -- though as usual Mark delivers a little more than he promises, in a piece honed for the special interests of an IP readership.  On the Class 46 European trade mark blog, Tomasz Rychlicki relates the challenge facing Poland today as it eases itself into a new opposition procedure for trade mark applications, to replace the cumbersome and ineffective ex officio examination of all applications on absolute and relative grounds for refusal. On the same blog, and in somewhat lighter vein -- though with overtones of great seriousness -- is guest Kat Nikos's post on the use of PLAYMOBIL characters as a means of depicting social comment and the possible effect of that use upon the brand itself.

Fancy a little paclitaxel ...?

Around the weblogs 2. So far as this Kat is concerned, the blog of the month is "For Pete's Sake! The tribulations of an honest not-for-profit self-publisher", which you will find on the 1709 Blog here. The Pete in question is Peter McDonald, a thoughtful and highly articulate New Zealander whose tale will resonate with many a reader who has sought to do the right thing and come up against the law or, worse, those who invoke it. Elsewhere the SPC Blog introduces readers to a bold attempt to extend a patent for paclitaxel (a.k.a. Taxol) for preventing restenosis [a recurrent narrowing of a blood vessel] by trying to persuade the UK Intellectual Property Office that there was no difference between a medical device and a medicinal product -- which, for most of us, there isn't.  Finally Aistemos picks up the work currently being done in mapping and visualisation by the Oxford Internet Institute and points to its possible relevance to IP analytics.


Revised Guidelines for Examination. The European Patent Office has announced the revised version of its Guidelines for Examination, which will apply as from 1 November 2015. Until then, the November 2014 edition of the Guidelines remains valid.  You can check out the Revised Guidelines here (Katpat to Chris Torrero for the link).

The saga of the EPO is increasingly looking like a Punch and Judy show, in which everyone gets hurt and there are no real winners: but is it not too late to achieve a workable solution?

Around the weblogs.  The IPKat doesn't usually lead his Monday Miscellany weblog with the "Around the weblogs" feature, but the current governance and operations of the European Patent Office (EPO) have attracted so much attention of late that it seems somehow inappropriate to let this subject slip down the page.  Roy Schestowitz's TechRights blog has been unstinting in its criticism of the EPO, his Friday blogpost being sparked by the EPO's objection to his use of its logo as it appears on the now archival Unitary Patent website, among other things.  In contrast, "Pilot project with Microsoft and other big filers will directly help SMEs, not hinder them, says EPO" is IAM editor Joff Wild's post on the IAM Blog, following the World Intellectual Property Review story, "EPO defends claims it favours big applicants", along similar lines last Wednesday.  Meanwhile, there has been a flurry of statements, counter-statements and newspaper articles representing a range of positions and accusations. This Kat understands the Merpel is waiting for the dust to settle before putting paw to paper. He contents himself at this stage with expressing deep regret that this unprecedented lack of trust and confidence in the running of one of the world's major patent-granting institutions should have been allowed to occur, and his hope that even at this late stage the vast amount of damage that is being done can be limited and ultimately repaired.


Here's news of a fun event, if you are around in London and able to avail yourself of it.  It takes place on Tuesday 27 October, thanks to the University of Westminster, and it's free.  The details read like this:

"The artist contract in the digital world" is a conversation between Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Chris Ancliff (Warner Music Group) and Paul Pacifico (Featured Artists Coalition) on the evolution of the artist/record company contract.

Pink Floyd, 1967

Following on from previous successful music business related events at Westminster Law School, including the Once in a Lifetime negotiation, we are delighted to be able to announce this very special event to take place in October. Chris Ancliff is the General Counsel (International) at the Warner Music Group and was previously General Counsel at EMI Group plc. Paul is the first full time CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition. Nick Mason is a renowned composer, musician and producer, who in some ways will be ‘coming home’ for the event – along with fellow architecture student Roger Waters, he held rehearsals for their band Sigma 6 in the student common room in what is now the Law School building. As part of Pink Floyd he later returned to play in the building’s grand art deco Portland Hall, where this event takes place.

It is now almost 50 years since Pink Floyd signed their first contract with EMI, and the evolution of this relationship will be discussed, along with consideration of various current issues.

Attendance is free, please register online.

Ethical dilemmas of online piracy: now for a survey.  The Kats have received a request from Tina Šalamun, a student from Slovenia who studies at the Faculty of Business and Economics in her local university.  Says Tina: "My research is about ethical dilemmas of online piracy. In my research I have included British students and all who live there. I would ask you if you could share a survey on your site. It would be a great help because it is very difficult to obtain a sample for later analysis. Thank you!"  The survey, which should take around 10 to 15 minutes to complete, can be accessed here.

... must at least be identifiable

Reminder for all readers: from today, Monday 7 September, readers' comments will no longer be accepted if they are not submitted (i) in the name of their author or (ii) under a pseudonym. Sorry if this causes annoyance (which we hope it won't) or confusion (which we expect it will). However, the difficulties faced in trying to work out who has said what have prompted the Kats to spring into action and make this rule.  The Blogger 'string' solution suggested by some readers doesn't really seem to address the issue since readers who post comments often do so in relation to several different earlier posts or discussions at the same time, on topics that are interrelated.  Anyway, thanks for your cooperation!



Copyright course at UCL claims to be sensible -- but you can get certified for taking it. "In the light of the copyright activities at the Commission", writes Katfriend Amanda Harcourt, "we are running a flexible course for the copyright industries at UCL in January [Monday 18 to Friday 22, to be precise] to explore the information from Brussels and that we hope will be sensible. You will see that it is framed so that attendees can come to part of the course so that they can augment their knowledge.  Thursday and Friday is compulsory-- and there is the option of 3 days, 4 days or the whole week (with accompanying price adjustments)". The star attraction of the course, which leads to a Certificate in Legal Rights and Trade Practices in the Creative Industries (CILRATPICI?), is the participation of fellow Kat Eleonora and recent guest Kat Tom Ohta among the 37 faculty members. Further details are available here. 

Here's a sample graphic, taken from last week's IAM Business Report on Billion-dollar Start-ups

Looking for graphics to support your blogpost?  People who write blogposts on IP analytics and statistics-related topics are often short of a decent chart or diagram to illustrate or ideally prove the points they are trying to make, and most bloggers lack the time, the ability or the inclination (or all three) to work out how to compose one.  If you are one of such people, here's some good news: IP analytics company Aistemos has kindly offered to provide charts and analytics in support of submissions to this weblog, to IP Finance and indeed to any other weblog that offers a serious treatment of IP analytics, statistics, big data and the like.  If you want to take up this offer, your first port of call is Marcus Malek (whom you can email at marcus.malek@aistemos.com).


Around the weblogs.  On the 1709 Blog former guest Kat Marie-Andrée writes up the welcome decision that a Californian city council was not allowed to assert copyright infringement against a citizen who used the video recordings of its council meetings in order to criticise its decisions and the positions taken by some of its members. The same blog carries more welcome news, from Ben Challis this time, that the saga of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier and A Slight Trick of the Mind has finally settled -- though the terms of settlement have not been disclosed and this blogger suspects that they may have been driven by convenience and expediency rather than honour.  The jiplp weblog lists four more books for review, for those who are speedy enough to respond to the invitation. 

Posting of comments: a new Kat policy. In order to make it easier to follow the discussions and threads of debate which appear in the readers' comments section beneath each blogpost, the IPKat has initiated a new policy -- comment-posters are asked to identify themselves via a pseudonym if they don't want to use their own names, since there are far too many people called "Anonymous" and can be difficult-to-impossible to work out which Anonymous is which.  The new policy comes fully into effect a week from now, on Monday 7 September.  Click here for a fuller explanation.


The IP Factor cometh.  Here's a final reminder that tomorrow, Tuesday 1 September, fellow IP blogger and patent attorney Michael Factor will be joining sundry friends at The Old Nick, Sandland Street, Holborn for a pleasant chat about ethics and the intellectual property professions. The time: 5 pm till 7 pm.  Michael. incidentally, is over in England to participate in a conference which is being held at St Edmund's College, Cambridge, on 4 to 5 September on "Patents on Life: through the lenses of law, religious faith and social justice".

Getting to the office on a winter morning can be an invigorating experience ...

Around the weblogs. The 1709 Blog carries an update on last year's Copyright Literacy Survey and subsequent developments -- and on a chance to play Copyright the Card Game. The same blog features John Enser's observations on the next bout of Euro-consultations, these being on the Satellite and Cable Directive, attractively branded "SatCab" (Eleonora's Katpost on SatCab and its possible implications for geoblocking can be found here).  However, pride of place among recent IP blogposts belongs to the must-read piece by Barbara Cookson on SOLO IP entitled "Mis-sold Community Trade Marks": Barbara makes a valid point very well, and this Kat hopes that Europe's judges, legislators and businesses take note of it.

WIPO Roving Seminar roves again -- this time to New York. "Protecting Your Intellectual Property Overseas: WIPO Services and Initiatives" is the title of the next in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) series of Roving Seminars.  This all happens on 17 September in the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 55 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10003, from 9:00 am until everyone runs out of questions. Is this for you? Consider this:

Are you looking to take your business overseas but not sure how to protect your Intellectual Property (IP) Rights there? Do you represent businesses and want to hear about the latest developments in global IP Systems? Then sign up for the WIPO Roving Seminar.  In this event, senior representatives from WIPO will lead an interactive programme of discussions that are sure to be interesting to anyone involved or interested in the international protection of IP Rights. 

This full-day event provides an introduction to WIPO services and initiatives, including International Systems for the protection of IP Rights and the infrastructure for the exchange of IP information. With plenty of opportunities for debates and discussions, plus interaction with the New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYPLA), United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and local business representatives, what more can one hope for? A full programme is available here and you can register your interest here.  Students go free; others have to fork out US$ 50, which makes this event a real bargain.


Around the weblogs. "Indian Patent Office Releases Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions", J. Sai Deepak informs us on his blog The Demanding Mistress; he promises a fuller analysis to follow this short note.  Still on patents, PatLit's parallel post on partial prior publication and poisonous provisionals [how's that for alliteration, purrs Merpel!] -- a guest piece by David Holland -- has generated some comments of its own, so readers may like to contemplate it in tandem with our own Katpost by Darren on the same topic here. Finally, the US courts have been exercised once again in their brain-racking over whether clothing designs are functional or artistic, in the peculiar context of cheerleaders' costumes: the court was split, even if the costume didn't: Ben Challis reports on the 1709 Blog here.


New team for JIPLP.  It's no secret that IPKat blogmeister Jeremy is retiring at the end of November. But up till now there has been no official news as to who might be replacing him as Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), which he launched with Oxford University Press ten years ago.  Anyway, earlier today the jiplp weblog announced who would be replacing him in his editorial capacity: there's a three-person team of fellow Kat Eleonora Rosati, former guest Kat Stefano Barazza and Marius Schneider (Ipvocate and co-editor of Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights through Border Measures - Law and Practice), together with content commissioning editor Sarah Harris, who is getting an upgrade. Jeremy is delighted that the link between JIPLP and the IPKat weblog will be maintained, a link which he believes to be mutually beneficial.