Intellectual Property

Recent Articles

•  

  17/04/2024

  England and Wales

  AI-driven enforcement comes of age in UK with AI systems reshaping advertising and regulation and enforcement – ASA’s 2023 Annual Report

  The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has published its 2023 annual report, describing 2023 as a watershed year for its digital strategy.Together, the ASA and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) secured the amendment or withdrawal of 27,378 ads in 2023, a remarkable 92% of which resulting from proactive work largely powered by the ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring System. In December 2022, the ASA ran 20,000 ads through the system, which rose to over 600,000 ads per month by the end of 2023. This system forms a key part of the ASA’s 2024 to 2028 strategy on AI-assisted...

  Read more
•  

  15/04/2024

  APAC region

  Top IP developments and predictions across Asia-Pacific

  We look back at the top developments over the last 12 months in Intellectual Property (IP) and we look to the future by offering our top predictions for the coming year for businesses operating across Asia Pacific (APAC) with an emphasis on mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore.Over the last year, we have seen the continuous and rapid development of IP systems in APAC jurisdictions, including the reciprocal enforcement of IP judgments between Hong Kong and mainland China and innovative Chinese court decisions on FRAND rates and the copyright of AI-generated images.  Over the coming year,...

  Read more
•  

  12/04/2024

  Europe

  Navigating clinical trial disclosures: No reasonable expectation of success in a patient sub-population in view of prior art reporting phase III clinical trial (T 1437/21)

  Recent EPO Board of Appeal decision T 1437/21 adds to a growing number of decisions concerning the patentability of second or further medical use inventions where the prior art relates to a clinical trial. At a time when the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is requiring increased transparency for EU clinical trials, this case law is of increasing importance to those operating in the pharmaceutical space.In brief, this decision further supports the position that the disclosure of a clinical trial protocol does not always mean there is a reasonable expectation of success of achieving treatment. The...

  Read more
•  

  11/04/2024

  Europe

  Designs practice update: EU Court of Justice upholds Advocate General’s opinion on strict rules for design priority

  BackgroundIn our previous article (here), we discussed the opinion of Advocate General Capeta in EUIPO v The KaiKai Company Jaeger Wichmann. That opinion was provided following an appeal against the General Court’s ruling, which had held that the 12-month patent priority period could be applied to an EU design application claiming priority from a prior-filed PCT.By way of background, the European Intellectual Property Office (“EUIPO”) had rejected a priority claim by KaiKai Company for a Community Design application based on an earlier PCT patent, on the basis that it exceeded...

  Read more
•  

  09/04/2024

  Europe

  The sum of parts: Registered design for segments of towers found valid by General Court

  BackgroundTA Towers ApS (“TA Towers”), a company based in Denmark, is the holder of the below registered Community design relating to goods for building materials, specifically, ‘building materials for a windmill tower’ (the “RCD”): On 3 September 2019, the intervener, Wobben Properties GmbH (Wobben) filed an application for a declaration of invalidity of the RCD. Wobben claimed that:the contested design lacked novelty,it did not have individual character, andthe features of its appearance were solely dictated...

  Read more
•  

  08/04/2024

  Ukraine

  Ukraine discontinues War and Sanctions Portal

  Following a governmental discussion on 19 March 2024, the Ukrainian government announced its decision to shut down a sanctions-related database maintained by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).This database, the “War & Sanction Portal”, was created in the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as part of the implementation of the sanctions plan against Russia (i.e. the Individual Sanctions Roadmap) of the Yermak-McFaul Sanctions Group.Starting with the "International Sponsors of War" section, the Portal was expanded to include additional segments...

  Read more