The recent cancellation decision of the word mark “BigMac” by the EUIPO Cancellation Division has raised several questions: is use of a trade mark on a website sufficient to fulfil the requirement of making genuine use of the mark? Or is evidence of sales required?
With the development of international trade, local products have started to spread all around the world and become popular worldwide. Geographical indications (GIs) are meant to protect the use of the name that indicates certain characteristics and the origin of products typical for a particular...
UN treaty bodies are committees of independent experts in charge of monitoring state compliance with the major UN human rights treaties. Yet, how far are these committee members truly expert and independent from their home governments, considering that they are nominated and elected by states?
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A comparative analysis between the major patent systems shows that the number of claims in a patent is influenced by the fee structure: additional fees per claim lower the number of claims considerably as compared to a flat fee.
This post opines that the universalist/relativist debate on human rights is not as divisive as it initially seems – rather than to undermine universalism in its entirety, cultural relativism serves as a reminder to constantly re-evaluate our assumptions on human rights to promote inclusivity.
The Italian Senate committee tasked with advising the Senate on the lifting of immunities , voted to block an investigation against Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini over his decision to hold over 150 migrants on board a ship for five days. This vote was preceded by an internet consultation...
Is it legally possible for Trump to invoke an emergency in order to avoid Congress and obtain the necessary funds to build his wall? Or put differently: is it possible under US law to undo the refusal of Congress to appropriate the necessary funds?
The need to guarantee the free flow of information in a Big Data economy forces us to re-think Intellectual Property Rights and find an appropriate balance between competition, innovation, privacy and incentives.
Seventy years to the day have passed since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. International human rights have since gained ground in theory, discourse, and practice. In this short post, I argue that for human rights to regain some of their traction, we should take care not to use...
What does sovereignty mean in today’s world, given trends of globalisation, Europeanisation and also polarisation?
