Tag:Designs

1
UK Trade Mark and Design Reform Consultation
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Ferrari Obtains New Guidance From the CJEU on Protection of Parts Under the Unregistered Community Design Regime
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Designs Law Changes Now Enacted in Australia
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UAE to Join the Madrid Protocol
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Riding on Coat-tails, Doesn’t Come Free: UK High Court Awards Additional Damages for Oh Polly’s Flagrant Infringement of House of CB’s Unregistered Design Rights
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A Welcome Proposal to Introduce a Grace Period Into the Australian Designs Act
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Free Extensions of Time from IP Australia and IPONZ for COVID-19 delays
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Cofemel’s first UK outing – The wooly world of copyright and designs
9
Towards a Uniform Theory of Patent Law: The Federal Circuit Declines to Create Design-Patent-Specific Rules for Exhaustion or Repair
10
A No Deal Brexit – how will trade marks and designs look?

UK Trade Mark and Design Reform Consultation

The UKIPO Transformation Programme

The UKIPO launched a transformation programme to modernise their trade mark and design services by the end of 2025. The aim is to replace their existing processes with a fully digitalised system in line with increased volume of work and customer demand.

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Ferrari Obtains New Guidance From the CJEU on Protection of Parts Under the Unregistered Community Design Regime

The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has handed down its decision in the case Ferrari v. Mansory Design on the scope of protection of Unregistered Community Designs (case C 123/20). This case is particularly relevant as it shines a new light on the scope of protection of part of a product under the Unregistered Community Designs (UCD) regime.

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Designs Law Changes Now Enacted in Australia

Following on from our article of 15 February 2021, which can be read here, the Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Bill 2020 received Royal Assent on 10 September 2021.

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UAE to Join the Madrid Protocol

In great news for companies that file trade marks internationally, the Government of the United Arab Emirates has agreed to join the Madrid Protocol from 28 December 2021.

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Riding on Coat-tails, Doesn’t Come Free: UK High Court Awards Additional Damages for Oh Polly’s Flagrant Infringement of House of CB’s Unregistered Design Rights

On 24 February 2021, the UK High Court found that a number of Oh Polly dress designs had infringed the unregistered design rights of its competitor, House of CB. This recent decision confirms the risk of additional damages being awarded if infringers flagrantly copy third party designs, whilst also confirming the difficulties brand owners face in bringing passing off actions based solely on copycat designs.

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A Welcome Proposal to Introduce a Grace Period Into the Australian Designs Act

The Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Bill 2020 (Bill), with important changes to designs law, is currently before Senate for consideration. It includes a much-anticipated change to implement a grace period that will allow designers to publish their designs before applying for design protection.

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Free Extensions of Time from IP Australia and IPONZ for COVID-19 delays

The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted all businesses in one way or another and IP Australia understands that dealing with IP matters is not necessarily the highest priority for some businesses.

As a result, from 22 April 2020 IP Australia is providing free three month extensions of time for most deadlines but not renewal and continuation fees deadlines. Additionally, the six month grace period is still available and ordinary extensions of time will remain available for periods of longer than three months.

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Cofemel’s first UK outing – The wooly world of copyright and designs

In Response Clothing Ltd v The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Ltd [2020] EWHC 148 (IPEC), the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (“IPEC”) has issued the first UK decision made since the Court of Justice of the European Union’s controversial decision in Cofemel (C-683/17).

Why does this matter?
The Cofemel decision indicated that there is a harmonised concept of what constitutes a ‘work’ under copyright law throughout the EU, which is not restricted by any defined categories and should not take into account any aesthetic considerations.

Accordingly, there has been much discussion about the UK’s closed list of copyright protectable subject matter under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 (“1988 Act”) and the concepts of ‘artistic works’, ‘sculptures’ and ‘works of artistic craftsmanship’ under section 4 of the 1988 Act and whether these are incompatible with EU law. Previous prominent Court decisions such as the Lucasfilm decision in the Stormtrooper Helmet case have also been thrown into question.

This decision is the first time that a UK Court has had to deal with this apparent incompatibility.

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Towards a Uniform Theory of Patent Law: The Federal Circuit Declines to Create Design-Patent-Specific Rules for Exhaustion or Repair

On Tuesday July 23, 2019, the Federal Circuit declined to fashion design-patent-specific doctrines of exhaustion or repair. Automotive Body Parts Ass’n v. Ford Global Techs., LLC, Case No. 2018-1613, slip op. at 2 (Fed. Cir. July 23, 2019).

Instead, the court reemphasized that the same rules apply to utility patents and to design patents unless otherwise provided by law. Id. Also concluding that “aesthetic appeal” is not functional, the court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in Ford’s favor. Id. The decision is notable for its widening of the gap between trade dress and design patents and for its reaffirmation of the principle that design patents and utility patents should, whenever possible, receive identical treatment under the law.

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A No Deal Brexit – how will trade marks and designs look?

UK Government issues guidance on IP matters if there is no deal struck

Over two years after the UK voted to leave the EU, there is an increasingly likely possibility that the UK will leave the EU in March 2019 without a deal agreed (although negotiations continue).  As a result, the technical guidance notes published on 24 September 2018 give businesses, brand owners and designers much needed insight into how such a scenario will look.

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