Latest News
This space is dedicated to the latest and most relevant news stories in the world of intellectual property.
Chinese authorities stops illegal use of athletes’ names as trademarks
Chinese authorities rejected 109 trademarks applications from businesses that used names of Olympians from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games without their permission. Soon after the Olympics, some companies started using several Chinese gold medalists names to sell any...
Crocs accuses 21 brands of copying its “iconic design”
Crocs Inc. has filed lawsuits against 21 companies, including the multinational retail corporation Walmart, alleging infringement of the foam clogs’ “distinctively quirky design.” According to the complaints, Crocs asserts that it maintains an array of “valuable...
Huawei and Verizon settle pending patent disputes
Huawei and Verizon have decided to agree to settle two legal disputes pending among them for infringement of patented technologies. The trials, whose celebration was scheduled for this year, had been filed by Huawei against Verizon, the largest mobile telephone...
YouTube is not liable for its users’ copyright infringement
The European Court of Justice has recently established, with its own decision, the general principle according to which – under certain conditions – YouTube and other online platforms are not liable for their users’ uploading of copyright-protected content. The...
Lidl copies the design of Hendrick’s gin: the court orders its withdrawal in the United Kingdom
The Scottish Court of Session has ordered Lidl to temporarily stop selling its “Hampstead” gin, because it is too similar to the “Hendrick’s” gin. Lidl’s gin has been sold for about ten years, but in 2020 the well-known German discount chain decided to renew both the...
Jeep vs Mahindra: new controversy in Australia over design of new Mahindra Thar SUV
Stellantis, which owns Jeep, has moved the Federal Court of Australia against the Indian company Mahindra & Mahindra, after the latter released a teaser advertisement of the launch of the second generation “Thar” SUV in the Australian market. The Court has been...
EPO report on global trends in clean energy technology innovation
A new joint study recently published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the European Patent Office (EPO) reveals that the worldwide number of high-value patents for inventions related to low-carbon energy technologies grew on average by 3.3% per year in the...
Google signs news content deals with Italian publishers
Google announced it has signed licensing deals with several Italian media publishers to pay for news content. It follows an agreement entered into with some French publishers earlier in the 2021 over the “neighbouring rights” – introduced by the EU Directive 2019/790,...
Zoom Sues RingCentral For Trademark Infringement
Zoom Video Communications, Inc., owner of the Zoom platform, recently sued RingCentral asking for an injunction preventing the latter, after a long-lasting partnership, from using the "Zoom" brand. According to the complaint, Zoom and RingCentral have partnered for...
Yamamoto wins copyright suit for his “goldfish phone booth”
The artist Nobuki Yamamoto has recently won a suit over a claim that a merchants’ association in western Japan would have copied one of his artworks featuring a telephone booth filled with water and goldfish. In fact, the Osaka High Court, overturning a lower court...