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News • IP News This Month
January, 2011
Welcome back to CIPP's IP News This Month! Here's your monthly guide to the most important news and trends in intellectual property culled from newspaper and blog reports around the world.
Tips or comments? Send them to jeff.roberts@mcgill.ca
Top 3 Stories
The Hollywood-backed Stop Online Piracy Act is giving rise to the MOST CONTENTIOUS IP FIGHT IN THE US SINCE THE DMCA. Opponents, who warn the bill has grave technological and free speech implications, gained momentum in late December thanks to new support from the political right and warnings that Google, Facebook et al could shut down their sites in protest. Look for a finale in late January.
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In an EPIC WEEK FOR COPYRIGHT, the Supreme Court of Canada heard five separate appeals on the meaning of broadcasting and fair dealing. The cases taken together suggest the Court is laying new bedrock for copyright jurisprudence in the digital age.
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The INSANITY OVER SMARTPHONE PATENTS may have CRESTED following the ITC’s decision to grant Apple an import ban on certain Android phones. The ban was narrow and allowed time for a patent workaround. This and other decisions in Germany and Australia have blunted the effectiveness of Apple’s strategy to wield injunctions to keep iPhone and iPad competitors out of the market.
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Canada
Save the date: On Jan 26, the CIPP hosts copyright scholar and blogger Prof Mazzone of Brooklyn Law who will share new ideas on how overreaching IP claims – from Barbie to MLB – affect creativity and the economy
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A trademark dispute is forcing the trainwreck that is Research In Motion to change the ‘BBX’ name of its next generation of smartphones
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The Federal Court of Appeal reversed a finding on the infamous Amazon one-click patent and, critics say, created new uncertainty about patentable subject matter
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U of M profs claim a website that lets students swap lecture notes and course materials amounts to IP theft; the site says notes are not copyrighted
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United States
Prof Lemley et al’s “Don’t Break the Internet” in Stanford Law Review explores how the enforcement ideas underlying SOPA threaten technology and free speech
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Google moved to dismiss the Authors Guild's revived class action over book scanning, citing lack of standing; meanwhile, Google is settling with publishers
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The Hangover II has given rise to yet another IP suit; Louis Vuitton is suing Warner Bros over a lead character’s use of fake LVM luggage
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Congrats to Prof Crouch whose Patently-O is set to win IP blog of the year; the ABA’s annual write up also highlights some promising IP up-and-comers
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The NYT has a worthy piece on how a Rastafarian collage case before the 2nd circuit sums up copyright and attribution problems inherent to today’s artists ‘web-driven reuse culture’
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The 6th Circuit will rule on whether Maker’s Mark bourbon can have an exclusive trademark on wax seals for liquor bottles; Casa Cuervo tequila says it can’t
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Copyright troll Righthaven – which partners with newspapers to sue bloggers – is on its last legs after a court ordered an auction of its assets to pay legal fees
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The 9th Circuit unanimously upheld a safe harbor ruling shielding video-sharing site Veoh from liability for infringing uploads
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Duke offers a fun collage of books, music and movies that have would come into the public domain if copyright hadn’t been extended near indefinitely
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Chief Justice Roberts compared a patent for medical dosages to giving a patent for making heat from fire (via the NYT re Mayo Clinic v. Prometheus)
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Europe
Fans of unreadable Irish fiction will be glad to know that Ulysses and other James Joyce works enter the public domain this month
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Smart IP types are worried that December’s agreement to create an EU-wide patent court will fail to reduce costs and give cases to inexperienced judges
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The UK has touched up its ‘patent box’ scheme that will start in 2013; deductions are now available retroactively and apply to more types of patent revenuen
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BT, a large ISP in the UK, filed a patent suit against Google in Delaware
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Analysts tell the FT that the ITC’s ruling on Apple’s patents will do little to stop the growth of Android-powered smart sales
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International
The China Daily says IP enforcement is going swimmingly, citing the success of notice and takedown and a 42% increase in court cases this year
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J&J says it will not join other big pharma firms in giving licenses to a HIV patent pool run by MSF; J&J says mixing and matching treatments will set back HIV therapies by years
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Australia is donating $2 million to help developing countries improve IP capacity; the IP Kat says the money should be used to put national African IP websites online
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