INTRODUCTION The purpose of the present article is a brief and general outline of the new legal framework in Greece about the state aid scheme for the production of audiovisual works in Greece based on the incentive of a cash rebate of the 25% of the eligible costs of the production incurred within the Greek … Continue Reading
Summary In its decision no 1589/2017 the Greek Supreme Court upheld the appeal brought by the Greek company “DPH” against the Dutch company “P”. The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeals’ decision, which had upheld definitely the lawsuit of “P” against “DPH” for breach of “P”’s essential patents, was wrong in finding they … Continue Reading
The protection of copyright from infringements taking place via the Internet has been in Greece until today extremely inefficient and time-consuming. Legal experts and copyright holders hope that this situation will alter soon. On July 2017, a new Copyright Law 4481/2017 was adopted amending the existing Copyright Law 2121/1993. The new Law provides dispositions aiming … Continue Reading
Introduction The Collective Management Organisations in Greece are subject to the legal framework of the Law 2121/1993, as amended recently by Law 4481/2017 regarding the collective management of copyright and related rights, thereby the Greek legislation was harmonised with the Directive 2014/26/EU. In this article we aim to focus on one aspect of the new … Continue Reading
As part of the implementation of various changes to Canadian Trademark Laws, the Federal Government of Canada released in June, 2017 the new proposed Trademark Regulations for public consultation. Canada has been modernizing its trademark law, including by moving to join three International Treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) dealing with trademarks. … Continue Reading
On June 1, 2016, the mandatory pre-trial procedure came into force. On May 26, 2017 the State Duma approved in the second reading amendments to the current pre-trial procedure. Under the amendments, the pre-trial procedure extends only to the monetary disputes. The amendments (art. 1252 of the Russian Civil Code) also directly prescribe that the pre-trial procedure … Continue Reading
Suppose that you want to register a trademark that identifies a source of goods or services for your business. What if the trademark may be scandalous or disparage a particular group of people? Should you register your trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? Can you obtain a registration from the U.S. Patent and … Continue Reading
It is well known that the trademark laws of the United States differ substantially from the trademark laws of countries around the world. The United States Supreme Court recently clarified that ‘offensive’ trademarks are registrable, further differentiating the United States from the majority the world. Morality Refusals Many jurisdictions have prohibitions against registration of marks … Continue Reading
It is undeniable that the relation of the Greek state with the television stations has always been turbulent, and the legal status regarding these stations has always been uncertain. Law 1866/1989 regulated for the first time the grant of a license for the establishment and operation of non-state stations, but without a tender procedure. This … Continue Reading
In its meeting of April 27, 2017, the Russian Government has approved the Bill “On approval of the Protocol amending the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights” proposed by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Ministry of economic development and trade, and endorsed its further introduction to the State Duma1. … Continue Reading
Unlike the practice in many countries, in most cases the U.S. requires a trademark owner to place the mark into actual use in commerce and provide specific types of proof of use before the registration certificate will issue. Similar requirements apply to the mandatory declaration of use to maintain or renew a U.S. registration. Effective … Continue Reading
On December 13, 2016, the Russian Constitutional Court has published its Ruling on constitutionality of certain articles of Civil Code regulating the legal nature of compensation as an IP remedy. The constitutional review was requested by the Altai Arbitrazh Court. While considering numerous IP cases (Kvadro-Publishins v. Lubivaya, Aeroplan v. Vashkevich), the court found that … Continue Reading
When we last left the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB,” an administrative arm of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), they had issued a precedential opinion that registrations could not be issued for marks that covered the sale and use of marijuana products or paraphernalia primarily intended or designed for use in ingesting or … Continue Reading
In August 2016 Rospatent has initiated a public discussion on provisional applications and licensing of unregistered patents in Russia. In Rospatent’s view, provisional applications are designed to establish an effective 12-month term, within which applicants may file their non-provisional (“ordinary”) applications. In order to register a provisional application an applicant should disclose a technical decision … Continue Reading
Just over a week ago, the population of the UK voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. This was something of a shock, particularly for those of us in the legal profession who get to appreciate the effects that EU harmonisation of law can bring for our clients. The result is starting to … Continue Reading
After losing the battle in court over the requirement that businesses must add French language to English trade-marks displayed on signage outside their stores, the Québec government announced its intention in June 2015 to make modifications to Québec’s Regulation respecting the language of commerce and business (“Regulation”). As recently reported in the media, the Québec government has announced proposed … Continue Reading
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hears applicant appeals from the final decisions of trademark examiners, and oppositions to trademark applications, concurrent use proceedings, and cancellation proceedings against trademark registrations. The proceedings are held on a paper record with oral arguments by counsel. Matters before the … Continue Reading
Most recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptive Formatted Advertisements, and the FTC’s policy was supplemented by a Native Advertising Guide for Businesses (Native Advertising Guidelines) outlining why, when and how disclosures should be made when disseminating native advertising and sponsored content. In addition, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), … Continue Reading
ILN IP Insider is starting a new series – we’re featuring interviews with ILN IP lawyers, asking them questions on the state of IP Law in 2016. These will typically be one to two-question interviews with our practitioners from around the world. Our first interview is with Arnstein & Lehr lawyer, Judith Grubner: What’s the … Continue Reading
As of September 28, 2015, the Canadian Trade-marks Office (“CIPO”) indicated that it accepts trade-mark applications with the goods and services grouped and classed according to the Nice Classification system. CIPO issued a Practice Notice entitled Nice Classification on September 28, 2015. Prior to September 28th, the Nice classification system was not used in Canada … Continue Reading
Of the many hurdles in enforcing copyright online, one of the preliminary issues (and often one of the most complicated) is the problem of jurisdiction. With infringements potentially taking place all over the world, a rights holder may be faced with the dilemma of working out where infringements are occurring, and figuring out how to … Continue Reading
The Canadian anti-spam law (“CASL”) came into effect on July 1, 2014 and includes the ability to levy severe administrative monetary penalties of up to $10 million for one violation of CASL. In March, 2015, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (“CRTC”) gave its first indication on issuing penalties and addressing violations of CASL by … Continue Reading
The recent amendments to Canada’s Trade-marks Act present many interesting opportunities and challenges to brand owners and their counsel. This article focuses primarily on the impacts for Canadian trademark applications that are pending at the time the amended Act comes into force—that is, applications that have been filed with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) but that … Continue Reading
In its broadest strokes, American law recognizes four types of intellectual property—patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Patents and trademarks have been enshrined in US federal law since the 1780s, through the Constitution, and trademarks have been protected at national level since the 1870s through legislation. But until quite recently, trade secret protection has been … Continue Reading
