Posts Tagged: "Court of Justice of the European Union"

IP rights face “a challenging future,” according to Christian Archambeau, the Executive Director of the EUIPO, who spoke to the media during the INTA Annual Meeting in Boston last month. In particular, he cited the challenges posed by Brexit, international cooperation, artificial intelligence (AI) tools and Blockchain, working in multiple languages, and the volume of applications. EUIPO (formerly OHIM) is the Office responsible for registering EU trade marks (EUTMs) and registered Community designs (RCD) in the European Union. But Archambeau, who became Executive Director in October last year, also emphasized its broader remit to support cooperation between offices in Europe and beyond, and to promote IP awareness, particularly among SMEs. In this respect, he said the Office is looking at “helping SMEs with services that help them and make sense to them,” although it cannot change fee levels, which are set by an EU Regulation.

This time last year, the combination of the Commission’s September 2017 Communication and the proposed Article 13 of the draft Copyright Directive led some to conclude that Europe was indeed moving away from protecting internet intermediaries. The Communication has now been backed up by the March 2018 Commission Recommendation and proposed new Regulation (with its focus on terrorist content). Whether Article 13 is ever enacted and in what form is still to be decided, but it is closer to adoption now than before the vote in September 2018. Meanwhile, we await answers from the CJEU regarding the permissible subject-matter breadth and territorial width of injunctions made against intermediaries.

This time last year, the combination of the Commission’s September 2017 Communication and the proposed Article 13 of the draft Copyright Directive led some to conclude that Europe was indeed moving away from protecting internet intermediaries. Although the Communication has been backed up by the March 2018 Commission Recommendation (with its focus on terrorist content), whether Article 13 is ever enacted and in what form is still to be decided. Meanwhile, we await answers from the CJEU regarding the permissible subject-matter breadth and territorial width of injunctions made against intermediaries, and will keep an eye out for legislative action from the Commission following from its Recommendation earlier this year.

In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s ruling involving Nestlé’s attempt to register a four-finger bar shape as a trade mark in the United Kingdom, meaning – at least for now – it remains unregistered.

The General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has dismissed an appeal from the unsuccessful application by Arrigo Cipriani (Arrigo) to have Hotel Cipriani’s EU trade mark (EUTM) for CIPRIANI, registered for hotel services among other things, declared invalid on the grounds that (i) it was registered in bad faith and (ii) that, under national Italian law, Arrigo had a prior right to that name… The CJEU affirmed the test for bad faith and the principle that extending the protection of a national mark by registering an EUTM is part of an undertaking’s normal commercial strategy. The fact that the Registrant had an earlier, identical national mark, which Arrigo did not oppose or object to, contributed to the finding that there was no bad faith. In any case, bad faith remains a high threshold to prove and if owners have EU national rights, which were never challenged by the invalidity applicant, this could further add to the difficulty of proving bad faith by the registrant.

To replace the now-defunct Safe Harbor agreement, last week the European Commission published the first details of its transatlantic Privacy Shield. The Privacy Shield is meant to strengthen obligations on US companies to protect European personal data, and improve regulations regarding data monitoring by US government agencies. With the release of the draft Privacy Shield, many are skeptical that it will ensure proper privacy protection and some believe that it may be challenged after implementation.

The decision creates significant uncertainty for organizations who rely on Safe Harbor either for their own, internal data transfers, or because they use a service provider which, in turn, relies on Safe Harbor to provide adequacy for its transfers to the US. Alternative methods of addressing data transfers will be needed – such as implementing EU Commission approved data transfer agreements, or obtaining individual consent. Although the decision has invalidated Safe Harbor – with immediate effect – organizations will need to look to the reactions of national data protection authorities to determine how urgently to implement alternative data transfer solutions.

Most people are familiar with the four-finger KitKat bar which has been produced by Nestlé in the UK since 1935. In 2010 Nestlé decided to apply to register the four-finger shape of the KitKat bar as a trade mark. Cadbury, fearing Nestlé would be able to establish a monopoly on four-fingered chocolate products, raised an objection to the application. Nestlé were initially successful in their application but, following Cadbury’s legal challenge, the case escalated to the High Court and the CJEU where the shape was subjected to further scrutiny and ultimately rejected as a trademark.