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Nouvelles • La PI ce mois
April, 2012
Welcome to CIPP's IP News This Month, your 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
YouTube - Viacom is finally out. While the case is nominally about Google’s liability for unauthorized Jon Stewart clips uploaded in 2005, copyright owners were hoping the Second Circuit would use the ruling to scale back the safe harbor rules set out in the DMCA. The appeals court did remand the case (a victory for Viacom et al) but it also largely affirmed existing safe harbor laws and ruled in concert with the Ninth Circuit (likely denying copyright owners a crack at SCOTUS).
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The US Supreme Court surprised the biotech industry and the patent bar with a unanimous ruling that declared dosage methods are an unpatentable law of nature. Days later, it remanded the infamous Myriad Genetics case about breast cancer genes to be considered in light of its new ruling.
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Silicon Valley is riveted by an epic patent dispute between Yahoo and Facebook. Yahoo is following in the footsteps of other fading companies that turn to intellectual property licensing but public reaction has been unusually ferocious. Tech types and prominent venture capitalists posted visceral online rants and Facebook responded by buying its own patents and launching a quick countersuit.
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Canada
An Ontario judge certified a class action by lawyers seeking copyright in their legal briefs; defendant Thomson Reuters is arguing fair dealing, free speech and implied consent
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A sensationalist Post piece accuses the Canadian Bar Association, Prof Geist et al of skullduggery over a CBA submission to Parliament on copyright legislation
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Roar! The Canadian Intellectual Property Office agreed MGM can trademark it’s lion sound, opening the door for other sound marks
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United States
The Huffington Post’s use of thousands of unpaid bloggers is not unjust enrichment said a federal judge, noting the bloggers were paid with “exposure”
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Copyright holders and ISP’s have named a chair and board members for the “six-strike” enforcement scheme that goes into effect this summer
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Publishers are suing start-up Boundless Learning for offering free text books in which the lay-out and design is the same but the words are replaced with open source material
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A boycott by academics of Elsevier is gaining steam even after the academic publisher backed off its controversial plan to introduce a bill that would have curtailed public dissemination of medical research
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The USPTO has already issued new guidelines to patent examiners to help them decide on eligible subject matter in light of the Prometheus “law of nature” decision
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A Ted lecture video called “Copyright Math” is making the rounds in which author Rob Reid ridicules the dire economic loss claims put out by the record industry
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Aereo is still streaming live broadcast TV to iPhones in New York; studios are in court challenging its “one antenna, one device” copyright theory
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The new CEO of Apple is taking a more pragmatic approach to patent litigation unlike Steve Jobs who had vowed to use IP to “destroy” Google’s Android
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New joinder rules are allowing more patent defendants to escape the troll-paradise of East Texas
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A DC law firm has started what it says is the first “IP and human rights” practice; its focus is leverageing indigenous groups’ knowledge of medicine, art and design
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US lawyers are taking a fresh crack at filing copyright suits against Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis for selling access to their legal briefs
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The mother of unarmed Trayvon Martin who was shot to death by a neighborhood watch zealot under Florida’s “stand your ground” law is seeking to trademark his name
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In a survey on lawyer quality conducted by Profs Posner and Yoon, federal judges gave IP practitioners the highest mark for quality
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The mega trial between Oracle and Google over IP rights to programming language Java is set to begin on April 16
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“In empirical studies ... lay observers draw a sharp moral distinction between file sharing and genuine theft” says Prof Stuart Green in a NYT copyright think piece.
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Europe
The “battle of the tablets” between Apple and Samsung over design and patent rights is taking place across Europe; IP Kat has the details
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To branch out in your IP reading, how about “Patently in Love,” a contemporary romance novel set in a patent law firm that features a suspenseful search for prior art? Seriously.
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The tech press is still fascinated by a fuss over FRAND patents in Europe
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Patent applications surged 29% in the UK and patents are being granted at a higher rate; not everyone is sure this is a good thing
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The Home Secretary approved the extradition of a 23-year-old file who ran a file-sharing site and now could face 10 years in US prison; his mum wants him tried at home
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Microsoft is moving its logistic operation from Germany to Holland, saying fears the outcome impending patent litigation
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International
IP-crazed Australia is planning to let builders claim copyright over plans and environmental reports that have long been part of the civic planning process (Sydney Morning Herald, April 3)
Government-backed groups in China are, without a trace of irony, accusing Apple of facilitating piracy through its e-book store
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An Indian court ordered Bayer to grant a compulsory license under TRIPS for one of its cancer drugs; it could be the first of many such licenses
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IP News This Month is written and conceived by Jeff Roberts (jeff.roberts@mcgill.ca). Any views expressed do not necessarily reflect the diverse opinions of CIPP members