Litigation

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has teamed up with Latinstock and Cheil Spain to create “Animal Copyrights”, the first Image Database whose authorship is exclusively owned by different species of animals. This initiative includes rare images from the animal’s point of view, which according to WWF, has the aim of “presenting the world from their point of view is the best way to put ourselves in their position”.

The six-time NBA champion and former Chicago Bulls player has lost a lawsuit to a Chinese brand that has imitated his name and brand. Jordan sued Qiaodan Sports in 2012 and has requested the Chinese authorities to revoke the trademark alleging that it mislead consumers about its ties to him.

Qiaodan (乔丹), pronounced “chee-ow dahn” is a Mandarin transliteration of “Jordan”. In addition, Qiaodan’s products also carry a silhouette of a leaping basketball player resembling the “Jumpman” logo used by Nike to promote its Air Jordan brand.

One of our IP attorneys from our Portugal office, Master Vitor Fidalgo, was yesterday distinguished with the First Award "Professor José de Oliveira Ascensão" as part of his Master's thesis entitled "Compulsory licenses of Industrial Property Rights".

Past July 9th, the European Parliament voted 445 to 65 (with 32 abstentions) against a proposal to restrict the freedom of panorama in the European Union, maintaining the status quo.

Freedom of Panorama consists on a limit to Copyright Law and that permits someone to take photographs, make paintings or videos of other works that are permanently located in a public space (such as sculptures or architectural works), without the need to acquire a license that states the consent of the owner of the work that is displayed publicly.

The Sixty-eighth session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) took place in Geneva 18–26 May 2015. One of the issues that have been addressed was the high prices of medicines in Europe. Actually this is a growing problem in the EU. In the past few years the price of the medicines have been increasing exceeding the ability of the patients to pay for it. It is enough to recall the recent case involving the drugs to treat hepatitis C (HCV) which have an unsustainable price when compared to previous generation treatments.

The Court of First Instance of Turin has ordered a preliminary injunction regarding the protection of moral rights of the author of a work protected under copyright. The case was brought before the court by Riccardo Pagani and the defendant was his former employer Leo Burnett Company Srl.

A battle of titans is happening. It all started when Rihanna’s firm attempted to trademark the name “Robyn” on June 23, 2014. DC Comics subsequently filed a “Notice of Opposition” to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). DC Comics has advocated that Rihanna’s trademark will create a likelihood of confusion on the part of consumers because the trademark “in sight, sound and commercial impression virtually identical to DC Comic’s trademark.”. Furthermore, DC Comics has also argued that Rhianna’s trademark is diluting the distinctiveness and the goodwill of the name “ROBIN”.

The Industrial Property Act 2014 in the Seychelles entry into force on March 1, 2015.

The key contributions of the new Act include:

Trademarks:

After the new European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the new the German politician and member of the Christian Democratic Union, Günther Oettinger, took office, the European Copyright Society issued a letter claiming for a unification of the European Copyright Law.

Lionel Messi is currently battling another Portuguese. This time, however, Cristiano Ronaldo is not in the picture, given that this time, Messi is facing a Portuguese wine company, which is unwilling to allow Messi to sell his wine “Leo” in Europe.

In 2010, Leonel Messi has joined the Argentine wine company Bianchi, which union lead to the commercialization of the wine “Leo”. However, upon attempting to sale the wine in Europe, Casa Ermelinda de Freitas stepped in to prevent this situation.