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Find out more about the events held in 2023
EPO and UPC: Friend or Foe?
29 November 2023
About this talk
In June 2023, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) opened its doors for the first time, offering streamlined enforcement of Unitary Patents. At the same time, an alternative to central post-grant opposition at the European Patent Office (EPO) became available. UPC revocation actions can be brought against Unitary Patents (UP) and European Patents (EP) that have not been opted out of the UPC’s jurisdiction.
Both the EPO and UPC will base decisions regarding patentability on the European Patent Convention (EPC), which suggests that both proceedings will be substantively aligned, so how should a party wishing to challenge a UP or EP choose which is the best forum for their particular circumstances? What are the similarities and differences between EPO opposition proceedings and UPC central revocation actions? And what are the pros and cons of each? To what extent, for example, will the UPC take notice of EPO Board of Appeal decisions and adopt EPO practices, such as the ‘problem/solution’ approach to inventive step? Conversely, will it be the EPO that adapts its practices to the ways of the new court?
The participants
UCL's Institute of Brand and Innovation Law brought together a distinguished panel to consider these issues:
Dr Ingo Beckedorf (Chairman of Legal Board of Appeal, EPO)
Florence Butin (President of CFI of UPC)
Edward Oates (partner at Carpmaels and Ransford LLP)
Annsley Merelle Ward (partner at Wilmer Hale)
Chair: Professor Sir Robin Jacob (UCL Faculty of Laws and Director of the UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law)
Find out more about the event here, or watch the Lecture here on our YouTube channel.
Copyright and the CJEU
9 November 2023
About this talk
The Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) was pleased to host the launch of the new edition of Professor Eleonora Rosati’s book Copyright and Court of Justice of the European Union published by Oxford University Press. The launch was chaired by The Rt Hon Professor Sir Robin Jacob and involved a panel discussion around certain of the book’s themes with:
- The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Richard Arnold, Royal Courts of Justice
- Professor Uma Suthersanen, Queen Mary University of London
- Nicholas Saunders KC, Brick Court Chambers
Find out more about the event here, or watch the Lecture on our YouTube channel.
IP and the Metaverse
28 March 2023
About this talk
Everyone, it seems, is talking about the Metaverse: the parallel virtual worlds, where communities of users – via their avatars - play, socialise and collaborate. The next paradigm shift. It’s not just about games. Increasingly, the Metaverse is about business too, fuelling a burgeoning new economy in virtual products. As in real life, inhabitants of these virtual worlds like to shop, and buy their favourite brands of (virtual) clothing, furniture and other accessories so that they may express their individuality, enhance their surroundings, and acquire and trade other symbols of social status.
Undoubtedly, the Metaverse has created opportunities for IP owners, opening up new markets and licensing strategies which would have been difficult to imagine only a few years ago. But, as the Metaverse is growing, so too is the number of disputes that are arising, including those involving IP rights. Taken together, these risks and opportunities raises important questions for IP owners, practitioners, and scholars alike. UCL's Institute of Brand and Innovation Law brought together a distinguished panel to shed light on this debate.
Chair: The Rt. Hon. Sir Colin Birss, Lord Justice of Appeal and Deputy Head of Civil Justice
Speakers:
- Darya Firsava, Head of Intellectual Property, Senior Counsel, Wargaming.net
- Tom Grogan, CEO of MDRxTech and a Director of The Institute of Digital Fashion
- Dr Stephen Hughes, Lecturer at UCL’s Department of Science and Technology Studies
- Dr Michaela MacDonald, Lecturer at School for Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Teaching Fellow at Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University London
Find out more about the event here, or watch the Lecture on our YouTube channel.
3D Shape Marks – a 360 Degree Analysis
23 March 2023
About the event
This was Professor Ilanah Fhima's Inaugural Lecture, chaired by the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Arnold, Lord Justice of Appeal and a Distinguished Judicial Visitor at UCL Faculty of Laws, who was introduced by the Faculty’s Dean, Professor Eloise Scotford.
The Lecture, entitled ‘3D Shape Marks – A 360 Degree Analysis, reported the results of an empirical study undertaken by Professor Fhima of all 3D shape marks filed at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) during a recent five-year period. The research findings debunked the general consensus is that it is almost impossible to register a shape mark as an EU trade mark (EUTM), and that such marks are only registered if proof of existing consumer recognition as a mark (acquired distinctiveness) is provided. The Lecture further reported on the types of shape marks are being applied for and registered, and for which classes of goods and services, finding that the outcome of shape mark applications turn on the mark’s inherent distinctiveness, rather than functionality, despite the fact that CJEU jurisprudence identifies functionality, not distinctiveness, as the key safeguard against registration of features of shape that have the potential to hinder fair competition.
More of Professor Fhima’s research findings will be contained in a corresponding article which will be published in UCL Laws’ Current Legal Problems annual volume for 2023.
Find out more about the event here, or watch the Lecture on our YouTube channel.
Question the Trade Mark Judges
7 March 2023
About the event
IBIL, in association with MARQUES, the European Association of Trade Mark Owners, posed a set of pre-selected questions from the audience to:
The Hon Mr Justice Meade, High Court
Al Skilton, Senior Hearing Officer, UKIPO
Sven Sturmann, Chair of 2nd Board of Appeal, EUIPO
Professor Dr Vesna Tomljenovic, Judge, General Court of the EU
You can find out more about the event here, read the MARQUES Class 46 blog here or watch the video on our YouTube channel.
Chokepoint Capitalism: Can It Be Defeated?
1 February 2023
About the event
The prolific Cory Doctorow almost needs no introduction, but … . An Anglo-Canadian author, blogger, award winning novelist and high profile supporter of the Tor network, Doctorow is known for his views on liberalising copyright law, use of Creative Commons licensing and trenchant criticisms of DRM. For a time European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Doctorow worked out of London helping establish the Open Rights Group. He left EFF to write full-time in 2006 when he was named the 2006–2007 Canadian Fulbright Chair for Public Diplomacy at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy which jointly sponsored the post with the Royal Fulbright Commission and The Integrated Media Systems Center. The professorship included a one-year writing and teaching residency at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Doctorow had begun writing fiction when he was 17 years old, selling several stories, most notably Craphound in 1998. In 2003 his first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, was published in what was to become Doctorow’s characteristic mode: simultaneously releasing print and electronic editions; the latter subject to what was one of the earliest Creative Commons licences. To date Doctorow has written 12 novels, over 20 fiction and collections of works; two graphic novels, and a wide ranging body of non-fiction work. The latter category includes The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction, Essential Blogging, You Can’t Own Knowledge, How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, Ebooks: Neither E nor Books, and Information Doesn’t Want to be Free. Formerly co-editor of techno-utopian blog Boing Boing, Doctorow now has a solo blogging project Pluralistic.
Chokepoint Capitalism is Doctorow’s latest work, co-authored with the respected copyright scholar Professor Rebecca Giblin from Melbourne Law School. Published in November 2022, it is promoted as an examination of the manner in which competition, supposedly fundamental to capitalism, has been hijacked to the detriment of creators everywhere. Chokepoint Capitalism points out how over the last four decades, thanks to the Chicago School of economics, “greedy robber barons” have worked out how to lock in customers and suppliers; how to eliminate competitors so as to shake down everyone, creators, producers and consumers alike. Doctorow and Giblin set out to demonstrate how Google, Facebook, Spotify, the big three record companies, the big five book publishers, and Amazon - amongst others - have locked in artists and producers. These behemoths use that dynamic duo, Monopoly and Monopsony, to eliminate competition, and extract far more than their fair share of revenues from creative labour.
This lecture is a rare opportunity to hear Doctorow expound on these ideas and suggest how the situation might be corrected, and to put to him your questions. The London audience on February 1st 2023 should not be offended that Doctorow has colourfully and memorably described London as “a city whose two priorities are being a playground for corrupt global elites who turn neighbourhoods into soulless collections of empty safe-deposit boxes in the sky, and encouraging the feckless criminality of the finance industry. These two facts are not unrelated”. This assessment did not stop Doctorow becoming a naturalised Brit in 2011 and UCL’s Institute of Brand and Innovation Law is delighted to welcome him back to our corner of the playground.
Hard copies of the book can be purchased here | E-Book can be purchased here
Find out more about the event here, watch the video on our YouTube channel.