Litigation

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.

In a decision dated July 6, 2015, the Spanish Supreme Court, confirmed a judgment by Burgos Court of Appeal, which declared that the use of the corporate name “AUTORAM”, by the defendant, infringed the trademark and two trade names “AUTORAMA”, owned by the plaintiff, for services in Class 35.

For the Supreme Court it was clear that the similarity between "AUTORAM" and "AUTORAMA" could give the impression to the consumers that the services have the same commercial origin or that at least, there is a link between the companies.

The case that opposed an individual against the German company Breiding mbH is still fresh. This case was the result of a request for a preliminary ruling regarding the interpretation of article 23(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 of 26 February 2009 on the Community trade mark (hereinafter “Community Trade Mark Regulation”).

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has informed that the official fees for most intellectual property transactions will be increased. The measure will most likely become effective as from the 21st of December, 2015.

The increase will affect all trademark, patents and industrial design applications filed after the aforementioned date as well as retroactively for pending applications.

The decision has not been officially announced yet, the announcement will most probably be published in the Official Gazette on the 21st of December this year.

Apple has lost a patent lawsuit to the University of Wisconsin and risks paying fines of up to $860 million for utilising a design owned by the University’s licensing arm without permission.

The story of Naruto, which is the name given to an Indonesian macaque ape who rose to fame after taking a series of perfectly framed ‘selfies’ with a camera continues to widen its controversies with regard to copyright laws.

The House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands has passed a new Trademarks Act on the 30th of April 2013. This legislative measure will bring extensive changes to Intellectual Property in the region and it will effectively come into force on the 1st of September 2015. The implementation of the new act will substitute the current Trademarks Act (Cap. 158) dated all the way back to 1887 and the United Kingdom Trademarks Act (Cap. 157) of 1946.