Institute for Globalization and International Regulation

What does the term ‘MOCCA’ evoke in your mind, a kind of coffee or a specific brand? This Kat randomly asked this question to her friends currently at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Munich. Most of them regarded ‘MOCCA’ as a kind of coffee instead of a specific brand except...

Patent aggregation is one of the critical paths to raise revenue and earn a return on investment in the ICT sector. It comprises all activities whereby firms build sets of related patents, so-called patent portfolios, and subsequently use these beyond manufacturing. Different kinds of entities...

Geographical indications (hereinafter GIs) are signs used to safeguard the existence of a link between a product and its place of origin, focusing on quality and tradition.

For more than 40 years now, the harmonisation and unification of the European patent law have been discussed. So far, the only European legal instrument regulating substantive patent matters is a European Patent Convention (EPC) signed in 1973. The EPC, however, is outside the EU’s legislative and...

Constructing a functioning single market for business and trade among the Member States of the European Union (EU) has been the cornerstone of the EU project, and remains one of the strongest drivers for EU-level legislative reform. Over the years, the EU has prioritized the harmonization of...

The implementation of the Unitary Patent Package will represent the result of the evolution towards the unification of the European patent system.

Plant varieties are difficult to make but easy to reproduce. Proving that someone reproduced a plant variety, however, is extremely hard. For organized crime, infringing plant variety rights therefore presents low-hanging fruit, with consequences far beyond the infringement of IP rights.

The topic of AI-generated inventions requires preliminary clarifications: what do we mean with AI? What is the meaning of AI-generated inventions?

An EUIPO Board of Appeal agreed with Facebook that the figurative mark MYHUNTBOOK would take unfair advantage of Facebook’s reputation. This was, primarily, due to the inclusion of “book...

Nobuki Yamamoto, a Japanese contemporary artist, made an eye-catching work of ‘goldfish swimming in a phone booth’ (‘Work 1’) by December 2000 at the latest. In October 2011, a student organisation called ‘Goldfish Club’ at Kyoto University of Art and Design produced Work 2 and exhibited it for a...

Current US and EU secondary liability standards do not address all factors to trigger liability. This influences legislation and case law, setting an uncertain secondary liability outcome of IP infringement cases against Internet Intermediaries’. I suggest that tort law can tackle this problem.

Can a single colour alone be a trademark? The question is neither new nor unexplored. However, old wine in a new bottle is presented by the General Court in its decision rejecting an attempt to register a shade of colour for inhalers for asthma and related pharmaceutical preparations, reinstating...

In April 2019, press publishers were granted a new controversial right under the Digital Single Market Directive (Article 15). How have Germany and France dealt with...

Our world is digitalizing, meaning that nearly everything can be found on the Internet, such as press publications. This has led to some worrisome consequences for press publishers. The European legislator has created the press publishers’ right to address some of these effects.

In a recent judgment, the CJEU determined that the geographical indication Aceto Balsamico di Modena is only protected as a whole. This means that the non-geographical components ‘Aceto’ and ‘Balsamico’ are not protected individually.

Only 10 out of the 24 official EU language translations correctly transpose Article 17 of the Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market. These apparent errors mandate urgent action by the European Commission and the EU Member States.

Using the trade mark of someone else to describe how your own products relate to the trademark products is allowed under certain circumstances. Recently, the law changed in this respect, leaving the application of some factors uncertain.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), just like many other IP offices in the world, has recently seen an incredible spike in Covid-19 related Trade Mark applications. This blog presents EUIPO’s approach in examining trade mark filings that relate directly or indirectly to, or in...

The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation sez. I Civile, case n. 10300/20 (registered on May 29th), puts a hold on the proliferation of copyright protection and reasons that technical writings by lawyers - when functional to the provision of typical forensic services - cannot be protected. An attorney...

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is arguably one of the biggest crises of modern times. The conflict between the search for a vaccine, and the artificial scarcity created by patent law, has created a catch-22 situation. How will patent law apply to a vaccine under these circumstances?

Several pharmaceutical companies all around the world, including in the European Union (EU), have been racing to find a treatment for the virus. Since these may be subject to patent rights, government intervention may be needed.

To get photos of celebrities, paparazzi photographers wait for their targets to end up in the frame. They believe that the minute they released the shutter, the pictures are copyright protected. They don’t know that they might (un)knowingly or (un)intentionally breach someone’s right to privacy.

The rise of e-commerce has resulted in a sharp increase of counterfeit products in the market. The new US Shop Safe Bill introduces liability for online marketplaces, but only in case of counterfeit products that are risky for consumers, which makes this bill a preventive health measure for...

While at first glance this may seem like a chance to strike when the iron is hot, registering ‘Covid’ or ‘CoronaVirus’ as a trade mark faces several hurdles and rightly so: the trade mark may not be distinctive and will be considered immoral.

Trademark squatting has been a serious issue in China now, especially for foreign companies planning to enter the Chinese market. On November 4 th 2019, Beijing Municipal High People's Court issued a second-instance judgment on the “...

The grant of gene patents has been a highly contentious issue in the EU and US for many years. A new bill in the US proposes to lift the currently banned subject matter, with potentially severe effects.

On February 1 st , the UK has left the EU. This (has had or) will inevitably have an impact on unitary IP rights at EU level. Unitary IP rights such as the Community Plant Variety Right will no longer be valid after the transition period in the UK. What does this mean for holders of a Community...

The Court of the European Union (CJEU), in case T-683/19 (European Union Court, Seventh Section, judgment of 12...

Is the design of a pair of jeans a matter of industrial property under design law, or should it also be considered as a ‘work of artistic creation’ under copyright?

The protection of ‘offensive’, ‘scandalous’ and ‘immoral’ trademarks has been a subject of hot debate time and time again. To say that opinions on the matter are divided would be a great understatement. The US Supreme Court took a stance in its recent judgment on the protection of an ‘immoral’...

On the 4th of December, the Faculty of Law hosted a roundtable discussion on the upcoming EU Copyright Directive (2019/790) with viewpoints from students...

Macau, an island constituting one of the "Special Administrative Regions" of the People's Republic of China, has a unique patent system, which is notoriously advantageous for applicants. What is the benefit exactly and who benefits?

Since the establishment of the WTO, the promise was made that the world would finally have an effective system of enforcement for trade and IP law. Peter van den Bossche discusses the American boycott of the Dispute Settlement System (DSS) under the WTO, in light of the TRIPS Agreement, at the IGIR...

On December 10 th 2019, the Appellate Body (AB) of the WTO will remain with one judge only, Ms. Zhao Hong (China). This will impair the functionality of the AB as it requires three judges to operate. At the...

The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is a milestone. It allowed intellectual property (IP) to become far more present in society than ever before, connecting it to trade. But has this milestone, come for good, for better, or worse? TRIPS was understood to...

As the title suggests: Beyoncé already knew that good faith can determine the fate of one’s actions. This is also true for registering trade marks. One should hence avoid bad faith practices, as defined by Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

European Union research funding emphasises interactions between stakeholders as key to drive innovation on the continent. In that light, my PhD research within the EU-funded EIPIN Innovation Society project...

AIs are currently reversing the roots of the retail industry which was mainly based on a reactive model. Instead, based on their predictions, the model is changing and consumers are being highly influenced by AIs at any stage of the purchasing process. Does this challenge the roots of trademark law?

Recently, Chanel Co., Ltd. lost a trade mark infringement case regarding its ‘Double C’ logo in China. The full text of the decision can be visited via...

This week I am having the pleasure of attending the 2019 BIO International Convention hosted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The biggest global event of its kind, this international convention brings together stakeholders from across the biotechnologies. Whether it be from the health, agricultural...

Copyright protection in various artistic fields is already recognized and respected, however in comedy and stand-up performances, the question remains as to whether a comedian can be inspired by another comedian by appropriating and translating a part of his sketch.

With AI’s recent breakthrough in machine learning, now more than ever inventors are looking for ways to protect AI systems. But obtaining patent protection depends on the right claims.

When compared to other countries, European researchers in the field of human embryonic stem cells maybe at a disadvantage. Because of the morality clause in the European Patent Convention, the EPO does not grant patents on human embryonic stem cell research.

A new copyright reform (Music Modernization Act) was passed in the US Senate in 2018, comprising reforms on the term of protection for works played through online digital music services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora. However, can copyright keep on being repeatedly extended? Is this...

Now is high time to prepare for life without the Appellate Body—hopefully it will only be temporary, argued Maastricht doctoral researcher Jens Hillebrand Pohl at a guest lecture he gave at Nagoya University, Japan, on 23 April 2019.

Electronics companies increasingly engage in patent aggregation, that is to accrue patents without using them for manufacturing purposes. So far, it is unclear whether such behaviour has negative effects on innovation. If it did, could EU competition law remedy it?

E-personhood is a term proposed in a draft report by the EU Parliament, about civil rules and laws on Robotics. This legal status aims at ensuring rights and responsibilities for the most capable AI agents. An intense debate about its usefulness is taking place in the EU.