General Notes Flashcards
Wha can a country do if not satisfied with another country’s IP protection?
WTO dispute mechanism to settle the dispute (TRIPS Agreement)
What is IP related issue with cigarette advertising in Australia?
- they can’t put their brands on the packages. They have to use plain packages.
- Trademark issue: It does not comply with trademark protection. Company cannot use trademark as it was registered.
- Highlights the different issues that can arise from IP
- GTI and BAT went to court in Australia. They lost. Regulation is confirmed and will remain in order to protect Public Health.
- WTO dispute mechanism to solve problem of trademark protection. Case is pending.
Apple v Samsung
- Dispute started years ago. In 2010, Apple started suing different companies (HTC, Nokia, Samsung) for copyright infringements.
- What is a declaration of non-infringement? An indication of no infringement that forces the other company to come and show whether or not there is an infringement. Samsung won as the UK court found that there was no infringement. The round shape was not infringing because Samsung phones are not ‘as cool’ as iPhones.
- There was a ban of sales in Germany of Galaxy products.
Hollywood v Silicon Valley
- Safe harbour procedure
- Hollywood claims YouTube should be liable and not benefit from safe harbour
- More political as politicians are deciding
IP Principles
- For the country, for the progress of science and useful arts.
- Protection is only for a specific limited time.
- IP chooses specific intangible assets to protect and gives an exclusivity
- There is always a balance. On one hand private creators are protected but this is balanced with public interest to have public access to the technology and copyright.
What is a copyright?
- It protects literary and artistic work, which has to be individual enough to warrant protection.
- This was not so easy. Centuries ago, photography was not deemed as a being capable of granted copyright protection. Changed with French judgment
- Contemporary art and copyright. Copyrights works benefit from tax benefits.
- Software is usually protected by copyright
What is a Trademark?
It protects signs which are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one company (from those of other companies)
Different Types of Trademark
- Combined trademark: ROLEX (word and visual)
- Burberry shape trademark, colour, music, Lion of MGM
- Issue of smell trademark: perfume industry could be granted high protection. EU has still rejected this but UK has accepted for tennis balls which have the smell of grass. Also darts with smell of beer.
- A trademark only protects specific good and products. E.g. Apple trademark will be protected on only computer devices
What is a Patent?
It protects inventions e.g. Velcro of creative solutions discovering natural processes
- Surgery processes can be protected. The screen touch is seen as a product patent
What is a Design?
- Protects innovative shapes e.g. Burberry, 3d shape of iPhone and iPad.
IP similar rights
- Airbnb data can be protected as database right.
- Trade secrets are intangible. Employee’s know how can be protected as trade secrets. Coca Cola recipe is protected as a trade secret
- The image of someone can be protected and can be used to claim royalties. E.g Topshop did not have the image rights of Rihanna even though they had the copyrights of the photographer.
- Summary
Territoriality
(Art 6 Paris Convention for trademark registration, Art 2.2 Berne Convention for literary and artistic works): Each country decides how to protect IP. The use of the principle of territoriality has become global.
Countries recognized the need for international protection and so treaties were adopted for intellectual property
Two essential pillars of IP Protection
Paris Convention for the protection of Industrial Property (1883)
Bern Convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886)
WIPO
Mission is to promote IP protection worldwide.
How?
A. IP services e.g. PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty: system for protection patents worldwide through single application which can be extended to different countries)
Patentscope to find already existing inventions.
What are the conditions to get a patent?
1. Novelty
2. Has to be useful and be able of reproduction (industrial applicability)
Madrid system: For trademarks
You could register a trademark in one country and do an international extension in countries where you want your trademark protected.
Romarin: Same principle as patentscope but for trademarks
Duration of protection of a trademark is 10 years with the possibility of indefinite renewal.
Combination of all the IP rights guarantees the best protection
B. Dispute resolution
- Mostly done for domain name dispute resolution
Arbitration and mediation Centre. Experts solve disputes
C. Norm Setting: making new treaties
Latest treaty: Marrakech Treaty for access of literary work to blind users.
- 1967 WIPO Convention has as its objective, the basic promotion of IP (Art 3).
- Cluster B of the 2007 documents considers less developed countries and includes international organisations and NGOs (Art 15). Art 17 considers flexibilities for less developed countries to have access to information. How can this flexibility be achieved? For example drugs and medicine (flexibility for public health)
- Art 22 refers to the millennium declaration
WTO
Idea is to promote free trade among the member states
WTO came from the GATT
Annex 1c: IP Rights (TRIPS Agreement)
Coming Challenges
- Law facing the network (internet)
- Global Use v Local regulation: How to build strong system despite global use
- New digital Assets: Personal data and digital files which may become digital assets. E.g. Music library, which combines personal data with digital data - New Legal Approaches
New approaches of protection:
- Code is law. (See copyright 2.0) Technology now defines what is law and not the books. Software defines law.
- Law is Code (software): YouTube robot identifies copyright infringements and copyright exceptions. c/f final lecture
- Commons approach v Proprietary Approach: Proprietary seeks to protect individual copyright. Commons seeks to share collectively among the community.
How are the Paris (Industrial property), Bern (Literary and Artistic Works) and TRIPS linked?
- Paris is non-structured and provides minimal standard of rights.
- Same for the Bern Convention. It provides general standard of protection.
- TRIPS is well detailed and structured. It has detailed enforcement measures which are key for IP protection (Part III)
- TRIPS includes the Paris and Bern Conventions (Art 9)
National Treatment (TRIPs Art 3)
This implies that nationals and foreigners will be treated equally.
Protect nationals the same way you protect foreigners.
It is not to be confused which reciprocity (Art 14ter- Droit de suite Berne Convention)
Most Favourable Nation (MFN) Principle (TRIPs Art 4)
Article 4 of the TRIPs agreement states that if a country is part of TRIPs, any further privileges (due to multilateral treaties) would be available to other nationals as well.
Territoriality
IP right only has effect in the country where it is protected. Beyond this, anyone can use IP rights without authorization.
Well-known trademark
- These are protected even though not registered because they are well known. (Paris Convention)
- They are an exception to territoriality
- WKT are not defined in the Paris Convention. Rely on the WIPO principles
Exhaustion
- Exception to exclusive right of right holders
- Concerns the right of first commercialisation
Question: Can a right holder prohibit Mr B from selling at a higher price in another country?
- Notion: Always relates to the original product
- National or International Exhaustion
Question 1: Right is exhausted. Can’t prevent 3rd parties to resell further - National Exhaustion
Right is exhausted in respect to one country. Mr B can buy product in country B where it is exhausted and sell it. - International Exhaustion
- It is exhausted nationally and abroad: everywhere.
- You can buy in country B and resell anywhere in the world. - Not regulated under international
- Each country may regulate - Regional exhaustion
- The EU has its own exhaustion regime for trademarks, copyright
- Under EU Law, regional exhaustion exists. Mr B can only resell in respect to the EU
Advantages of National Exhaustion
- Better control: Can prevent further distribution in other countries
- Stimulates innovation, research and development because these right holders may be protected
- In Kodak, was it national or international?
- For patents (exclusively), it may be legitimate to have national exhaustion because of high research and development phase. It is only protected for 20 years.
- If we choose international exhaustion, only the importers would benefit and not the end consumer.
- Also discussed in Kistgar
Arguments for International Exhaustion
- Free movement of goods (free market)
- National exhaustion infringes fundamental right of ownership of property. You should have the right to do what you want with your property.
Consumer shall not provide subsidies for
Case about exhaustion:
Silhouette case: trademark example
Lasedisken: copyright example
Breach of freedom of expression: Why was this relevant? Also in Kirstaeng
Davidoff - Tesco case
- Was it regional?
- Lawyers pleaded implied consent of Davidoff
- ECJ found no implied consent by the fact that Davidoff sold to Singaporean companies
- He could therefore prevent Tesco’s actions
Hoechst
Compulsory License allows 3rd parties to claim patent license. This is granted by the state and not the right holder. The CJEU explained that compulsory license is very specific to the territory.
Specific Exhaustion Regimes
- Depends on the functional characteristics of the good
- You would need to look at the specificities and decide on the most important ones
Commercial Scale
- MacBook example: many different IP rights involved
- Question: Can you resell 30 macbooks from the US here in Switzerland?
- Answer: No, because regional exhaustion exists in Switzerland
- Copyright as predominant element: International regime
- In reality, right holders try to prevent parallel imports through contractual agreements. They may prohibit active sale but not passive sale.
- Reselling products with different characteristics in another country.
For example perfume with specifications in French is sold in Germany. Right holders decided to have different characteristics but this does not affect the distinctiveness of the trademark. - Defective or Expired product
It depends on the specific circumstances - Modification by the importer e.g. changing the trademark packaging.
It depends on the extent of the function of the package.
Translation of usage instructions
- Copyright element.
- Instructions are not enough to be copyrightable.
Publicity Trademark - Coop using Ralph Lauren image. - It depends on the extent of publicity - Don’t give illusion of exclusive network. - See the chart on Chamillo
- Finishing Lecture 2 on exceptions to protection
Private International Law
Exceptions to Protection: Key topic
- Balance between interests of the creator and public interests to access the information for research (fair usage). All the IP systems find this balance
- There is right granted for a certain period of time for the different rights.
- There are also exception during this period that allows the public to use these rights
- The right holders can’t prohibit the use
How the exceptions are regulated?
Copyrights
- Within the Berne convention: Three step test
- See article 9 Berne Convention, para 1. (Right holders are granted an exclusive right)
- Art 9 Para 2: some uses shall be deemed fair without the prohibition of the right holders. Three step test:
- Limited to special cases (specific use)
- Shall not conflict with normal exploitation of the work
- Shall not unreasonably prejudice legitimate interest of the author
- Other exceptions:
- Art 10(1): Use for quotation, droit de citation (has to be fair: proportionality principle)
- Art 10(2): Exception for educational purpose (teaching. But with fair practice)