Litigation

In the last few years we have seen the rise in popularity of multiple software applications, with the latest and biggest example being “Pokémon Go” developed by NIANTIC, Inc. However, where there is a rise in popularity of a product, there is always an increase on the amount of copycats and counterfeits.

While in Europe there is a larger restriction for software patents, in the United States these restrictions are softer and the American Supreme Court has already issued several decisions concerning the matter.

Kickass Torrents (KAT) is one of the largest file sharing websites in the world that has allowed people to copy and distribute more than $1 billion worth of media. Since its inception in 2008, KAT has provided a directory that allows users to download TV shows, music, movies, videogames and other types of media. It is estimated that the aggregation of media that has circulated the website to be worth $1 billion.

A court battle between Apple and Network-1 from 2008 had a recent development. It all started when a company named Mirror Worlds filed a lawsuit against Apple, due to an infringement of patents describing streams of information in a computer system. A similar functionality is found in Apple’s Time Machine and Cover Flow.

In 2010, a preliminary jury trial, concerning four of those patents resulted in a $625 Million trial against Apple, however the latter managed to successfully appeal the case 6 months later, but dragged the process further.

Past April 20th, 2016 the Rwandan government has released an Official Gazette Special.

This important document, drafted in Kinyarwanda, French and English, makes effective recently promulgated laws and modifies various IP laws. The main changes are the following:

A Chinese court has ruled against Apple in a case over the use of the ‘iPhone’ trademark claiming that the Californian company failed to prove the term was “familiar to the public and widely known” at the time of registration. The trademark ‘iPhone’ was registered by the Chinese company Xintong Tiandi Technology Co. in 2007 on the same year the iPhone was launched, although it was not available in China until 2009. The company is a leather manufacturer that commercialises leather goods such as phone cases, purses, handbags and wallets.

The concept of keeping things as ‘simple and concise’ as possible in business and commercial affairs is frequently endorsed by marketing strategists as being the sure proof path to gaining visibility and the attention of the public. However, said strategy also carries an amount of risk when it comes to obtaining a trademark registration.

Canadian popstar Justin Bieber and American music producer Skrillex are being sued by an indie pop singer that performs under the stage name White Hinterland due to an alleged copyright violation.

Since March 29th, 2016 the Registry has begun to clear its backlog of pending applications and oppositions. Until this April 1st, the Registrar's office has abandoned about two hundred thousand applications and twenty thousand oppositions.

The reason why applications are being abandoned is mainly due to non-filing of response to the examination report. The Registrar's office is solely considering responses which were found to be uploaded in Internal module and has failed to consider responses which were filed physically at their office or emailed.

The long-standing dissension between Apple and Samsung continues, with an appeals court invalidating two Apple patents and ruling a third that had not been infringed by Samsung.

Samsung and Apple have been battling over patents since 2011, with both sides firmly claiming that the other has violated patents that they own related to mobile technology and design.

Apple had originally sought $2.2 billion, claiming Samsung infringed on eight software patents that cover features such as ‘slide-to-unlock, ‘autocorrect’, and ‘interactive phone number’.

With its 17 March 2016 decision (case C-99/15), the European Court of Justice (hereinafter “ECJ”) has taken an important step towards European IP law harmonization, clearing all the doubts that were raised among scholars and European national courts.