SIGNIFICANT CHANGES INTRODUCED AND PLANNED TO UK IP LEGISLATION

Posted by Radiance W. Harris on May 16, 2013

By John Wilks and Charles Harvey

UK IP legislation is changing.

First, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (which received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013), has just been published, and modifies UK copyright law (though not as drastically as some would have liked).

Secondly, the Government announced in the Queen's Speech that it will be introducing an Intellectual Property Bill to make changes to the law of design and patents.

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BROOKS BROTHERS OUTFOXED

Posted by James Stewart on May 15, 2013

By Rebecca Kay and Charles Harvey

Fox .jpg

Background

The famous fox and boot logo was first used by Peal & Co, an English bootmaker. In 1964, Peal & Co sold the goodwill of its business and the use of its trademark to Brooks Brothers UK Limited (a subsidiary of the well-known US menswear group) and in 1965 it ceased trading.  Following the demise of the Peal & Co business, W.S Foster & Son Limited (a shoe retailer on London’s Jermyn Street), recruited an employee of Peal & Co and (apparently at the employee’s suggestion) commenced its own use of the fox and boot logo.  In 2005, Brooks Brothers opened a number of UK stores.  Having realized that some of Brooks Brothers’ shoes featured the fox and boot logo, W.S Foster brought proceedings against Brooks Brothers before the UK High Court.

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DLA Piper Hosts INTA Reception

Posted by James Stewart on May 14, 2013

By James Stewart

INTA Reception Poster

On May 6, 2013, DLA Piper’s Trademark, Copyright, and Media Group hosted a private VIP reception during the 135th International Trademark Association Annual Meeting (INTA) in Dallas, Texas. More than 90 attended the global networking event, including lawyers and guests from Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America. The reception was held at Wolfgang Puck’s acclaimed restaurant Five Sixty, which provided stunning views of the Dallas metropolitan area. The evening was an elegant and unique opportunity for DLA Piper partners to connect with clients, including in-house counsel for some of the world’s best-known brands.

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Special Edition - Law à la Mode - INTA 2013

Posted by Radiance W. Harris on May 08, 2013

The DLA Piper Fashion, Retail and Design Group distributed a special edition of its e-magazine, Law à la Mode. The edition coincides with the 135th INTA (International Trademark Association) Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. Given the nature of the conference, the special edition focuses exclusively on branding issues such as securitizing trademarks, IP rights in shop formats and brand protection considerations for entrants into emerging markets.  Please click here to read the e-magazine.

DLA Piper Partner Presents on Social Media at INTA Annual Meeting 2013

Posted by James Stewart on May 08, 2013

On May 7, 2013, Gina Durham presented at one of the 2013 INTA Annual Meeting's main educational sessions entitled: "ReTweet, Repost, Repin: How Brands Get Their Message Out and Whose Content is it Anyway?" She spoke on a panel with representatives from Chevron and Goodwill, which addressed the practical aspects of propelling a famous brand through social media and discussed how to take responsible legal risks in the evolving legal landscape. 

DLA Piper's Fashion Law Breakfast at the 2013 INTA Annual Meeting in Dallas

Posted by Radiance W. Harris on May 06, 2013

By Ann K. Ford

This morning, DLA Piper's Fashion, Retail and Design Group brought out a commanding group of DLA Piper colleagues from around the world to discuss recent developments in their jurisdictions that affect brand owners of fashion and retail brands. The audience comprised of representatives of luxury and leading retail apparel brands, whom were treated to a breakfast of digestible presentations of useful fashion law and intellectual property news from China, Turkey, Brazil, Australia, Germany and the United States.

At the end of the program, London partner and Fashion, Retail and Design Group founder, Ruth Hoy invited guests to take home the DLA Piper fashion law e-magazine, Law à La Mode, and additional materials on China protection.  It was truly a remarkable event!

Fashion Law Breakfast 1.JPG

© 2013 Karen Campbell

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New York Federal Court Says No to ReDigi's Resale of Digital Used Music

Posted by James Stewart on May 03, 2013

Reposted from Sports, Media, and Entertainment Intelligence, May 2013 

By Scott W. Pink

In a setback for resellers of digital products, a New York federal court issued a decision on March 30, 2013 holding that ReDigi’s online platform for reselling digital used music violated the copyrights owned by record companies in that music. In the case of Capitol Records v. ReDiGi, the court held that the resale of the digital files facilitated by ReDigi’s technology was not protected by the first sale doctrine, which allows one to resell a lawfully acquired copyrighted work, because the sale of the digital used music involves making an unauthorized copy of the digital file. This decision calls into question whether there could be any viable means for legally reselling any form of digital content through the Internet.

It has long been an accepted practice for music lovers to clean out their music collections by selling their used LPs and CDs. Indeed, you will still find retail stores that have used LPs and CDs for sale. With the advent of digital music distribution through such online services as iTunes, these traditional means for reselling music collections are not viable because the music is typically stored on the consumer’s computer or mobile device, and not on a separate medium. 

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ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL) and United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)'s TRADEMARK DAY: BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE USPTO

Posted by Eunice R. Chung on April 28, 2013

On Wednesday, April 24th, Eunice Chung from the DLA Piper’s Washington, DC Office attended the program, “TRADEMARK DAY: BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE USPTO,” co-hosted by the ABA-IPL and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) at the USPTO Campus in Alexandria, VA.  The USPTO officials presented on various topics including the trademark examination process, electronic trademark application filings, USPTO website tools, USPTO’s operations, and U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) filings and procedures, among many other topics, and concluded with a live TTAB hearing.  Some of the participants of this informative program included Commissioner for Trademarks, Deborah Cohn, and Chief Administrative Trademark Judge Gerard F. Rogers.

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Broadcasters Request En Banc Rehearing After Court of Appeals Rejects Shutdown of Retransmission Service Aereo

Posted by Eunice R. Chung on April 16, 2013

UPDATE:  Earlier this month, the Second Circuit in a 2-1 decision affirmed a lower court ruling rejecting an injunction against broadcast television retransmitting service Aereo, based on the Copyright Act’s public/private performance provisions. Yesterday, in response to this decision, broadcasters filed a petition with the Second Circuit for an en banc review arguing that the recent decision defeats the “express purposes” of the Copyright Act of 1976 by “allowing new and existing distributors to design around th[e] license requirement and profit from the delivery of copyrighted programming while paying nothing for it.”

Below we have republished our firm’s blog entry discussing the recent Second Circuit decision, which the broadcasters are now challenging in their petition. 

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China: Naming Rights and Trademarks Disputes between Michael Jordan and Qiaodan Sports

Posted by Radiance W. Harris on April 16, 2013

By Edward Chatterton and Ann Cheung

After two decades on the basketball court, Michael Jordan, one the greatest basketball players of all time, is currently learning the rules of defence and offence in a different game: the Chinese legal system. Qiaodan Sports Company Limited ("Qiaodan Sports"), a Chinese sportswear company, are throwing their legal dispute with him back into his court.

Michael Jordan's fame in China is long-standing. He was first seen on Chinese television playing for the 1984 gold medal-winning US basketball team at the Los Angeles Olympics. Since then, he has become hugely famous in China, both under his English name but also under his Chinese name "乔丹" which is the Chinese equivalent of the name "Jordan". This Chinese name is shown in pinyin, the official system which is used to transcribe Chinese characters into Latin script, as "Qiaodan". Whilst Michael Jordan registered trademarks for "Jordan" in English in China as far back as 1993, he never applied for any registered trademarks for "乔丹" nor for the pinyin representation "Qiaodan".

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