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Fresh blow to counterfeiters: they will have to indemnify trademark owners for moral damage, even if they have not sold the counterfeit products
For the first time, the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber has upheld the existence of indemnifiable moral damage where there has been no actual sale of counterfeit products; an issue which, until now, has not escaped dispute. A Supreme Court ruling last 13 July establishes that the mere possession of counterfeit products and their display for […]
The Portuguese Government completes the transposition of the new European Copyright Directive
Notable new aspects of the law include the right granted to press publishers to authorize or prohibit the online use of their publications and that online content-sharing service providers are considered to perform an act of communication to the public or an act of making available to the public when they give the public access […]
Battle for gene editing: the US Appeals Court rules on CRISPR patents
The Danish company SNIPR Biome, which researches and develops CRISPR-based microbial gene therapy, has obtained a favorable decision in defense of its patents. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has overturned the decision of the PTAB which had ruled in favor of Rockefeller University and canceled five of the company’s patents on […]
Statement of use of a trademark: a requirement in the USA that does not exist in the EU
The use of a trademark is crucial to preserve the rights in the mark. However, whereas in the US the statement of use is essential to maintain the registration, in the EU, it does not exist. Let’s take a look. The registration of a trademark grants the exclusive right to use a particular sign to […]
Cultural appropriation: are there legal mechanisms to stop this from an intellectual property standpoint?
Trying to provide effective, balanced and adequate protection of traditional cultural expressions and recognizing the intellectual property rights that local communities and indigenous peoples hold with regard to those expressions pose a real challenge in legal terms. It is common knowledge that using a trademark, a patent or a design of another business may cause […]
Deep fakes: the media and the legal system is under threat
The exponential increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate audiovisual content is forcing us to re-think the risks involved in the proliferation of deepfakes. The quality of this synthetic content is such that it can generate situations or conversations that never existed, blurring the line between real and make believe, just like […]