Trade mark law - A Community trade mark or a national trade mark cannot be declared wholly or partially invalid on the ground that terms used to designate the goods and services in respect of which that trade mark was registered lack clarity and precision: the lack of clarity and precision of the terms used to...

"Since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016’s referendum, HGF has worked to ensure that Brexit will just mean ‘business as usual’ for its clients. However, ongoing negotiations and unresolved political debate on the future status of the UK in its relationship with the EU has created an environment of uncertainty for...

Design law - Private International Law - Article 90(1) of the Community Designs Regulation provides that the courts of the Member States which have jurisdiction to order provisional or protective measures in respect of a national design shall also have jurisdiction to order such measures in respect of a Community...

WIPO press release: "The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today launched a public consultation process on artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP) policy, inviting feedback on an issues paper designed to help define the most-pressing questions likely to face IP policy makers as AI...

Copyright - The supply to the public by downloading, for permanent use, of an e-book is covered by the concept of ‘communication to the public’: from the explanatory memorandum of the Directive follows that the intention was that any communication to the public of a work, other than the distribution of physical copies...

Consumer Law - Foodstuffs originating in territories occupied by the State of Israel bear the indication of their territory of origin, accompanied, where those foodstuffs come from an Israeli settlement within that territory, by the indication of that provenance. It follows from Regulation No 1169/2011 (on the...

Trademark Law - The General Court has incorrectly assessed if a collective mark that has been registered in over 30 classes in order to enable the consumer to distinguish goods and packaging that are part of a specific recycling system from other goods and packaging: the essential function of an EU collective mark is...

Protected designation of origin - geographical indications - The protection of the name ‘Aceto Balsamico di Modena’ does not extend to the use of the non-geographical terms of that name such as ‘aceto’ and ‘balsamico’ and ‘aceto’ and ‘balsamico’ are common terms.

Trade Mark Law - Appellant has sufficient interest in appeal: annulment of the contested revocation decision would be in the appellant’s favour. Error in law of General Court to base the revocation decision on the general principle of law that permits the revocation of unlawful administrative acts instead of Article 80...

Case C-785/19: Koch Media GmbH v HC. Landgericht Saarbrücken - Germany.

Litigation. Preliminary reference on the interpretation of Article 14, 13 and 3 of the Enforcement Directive, Article 8 of the Copyright Directive and Article 7 of the Computer Program Directive. 

Preliminary questions:

"1. a) Is...

From the executive summary: "The analysis is based on a rich set of data on access to pirated music, film and TV programmes in all 28 Member States, for the period January 2017 to September 2018. The data covers both fixed and mobile devices, as well as the main access methods: streaming, downloads, torrents and stream...

From the executive summary:

"Assessment has been carried out for the whole EU-28 market as well as for each Member State. Main findings suggest that:

- 3.6 % Europeans (13.7 million of the EU-28 population) stream unauthorised IPTV

- EUR 941.7 million Unlawful revenue generated by copyright infringing IPTV...

Case C-728/19: Beverly Hills Teddy Bear v PMS International Group PLC. High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) - United Kingdom.

Design Law. Preliminary reference on the interpretation of Articles 5(1)(a), 7(1) and 11 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 of 12 December 2001.

Preliminary questions:

Trade Mark Law - No use corresponding to essential function of a individual trade mark when the trade mark is used in such a way as to guarantee the geographical origin and characteristics of the goods belonging to different manufacturers which are attributable to the origin, but the goods are not manufactured under...

Privacy - Google is not required to carry out worldwide de-referencing on all versions of its search engine – by a request or order for de-referencing: in a globalised world may access outside the Union likely have effects within the Union itself, numerous third States do not recognize the right to de-referencing, the...

The referring court asks, in essence, whether, when a farmer, in the period between the publication of the application for a plant variety right and the grant of that right, has purchased saplings of a protected variety from a breeder, the planting of those trees and the subsequent harvesting and selling of the fruits...

Case C-637/19. BY. Preliminary questions Svea Hovrätt – Sweden.

Copyright - Preliminary questions. "1. Does the term ‘public’ in Articles 3(1) and 4(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in...

Curia press release: “[…] As regards the analysis of the functionality of the essential characteristics of the mark at issue, the General Court considers, like EUIPO, that the essential characteristic consisting of the black lines which intersect, horizontally and vertically, on each of the faces of the cube, dividing...

Case C-371-18 Sky v Skykick. Opinion A-G Tanchev.

Trade Mark Law -  Sky is the registered proprietor of a number of EU trade marks “SKY”, among which two figurative marks. Sky contends that Skykick have infringed these EU trade marks. SkyKick denies infringement and issued a counterclaim for a declaration...

Litigation - Concept of “appropriate compensation” must be given an independent and uniform interpretation: when the terms of a provision of EU law  makes no express reference to the law of the Member States its meaning and scope must normally be given an independent and uniform interpretation throughout the European...