In a last minute effort to avoid a government shutdown, on December 21, 2020 Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.
Late-night law may have big impact on IP owners
Stuff of folklore: the sale of Taylor Swift’s masters
Scooter Braun and Ithaca Holding’s recent acquisition of the record label Big Machine Records and, most importantly, the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s first 6 albums is no love story. Indeed, Scooter Braun’s subsequent USD $300 million sale of these
Brexit: The impact on trade marks and designs
The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and is currently in the Brexit Transition Period. This will end at 11pm on 31 December 2020 – defined in legislation as “IP Completion Day”.
The expiry of the Transition Period
China’s 2020 Patent Law Reform and Patent Linkage System
Patent Law Reform
We discussed the second draft of proposed amendments to the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) Patent Law in our previous blog post here. Since then, on 17 October 2020 the PRC National People’s Congress
New common EU Guideline on genuine use of trademarks in a form differing from the one registered
On October 15, 2020, the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) has published its Common Practice No. 8 (CP8) about the ‘Use of a trade mark in a form differing from the one registered’.
The CP8 provides guidelines and practical
China quietly updates its Copyright Law
On 11 November 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the amendments to the China Copyright Law (the Amendments), which will take effect on 1 June 2021. This is the third time the Copyright Law has
Federal Court issues new consolidated guidelines on complex proceedings
On October 22, 2020, the Federal Court (FC) issued new Case and Trial Management Guidelines for Complex Proceedings (the FC Guidelines). These new consolidated FC Guidelines address many of the topics raised in the following earlier FC
Federal Court of Appeal Reviews Meaning of “Use” of a Trademark in Canada
In Miller Thomson LLP v Hilton Worldwide Holding LLP, 2020 FCA 134, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal recently confirmed that a trademark associated with “hotel services” was valid despite no brick-and-mortar presence in Canada. More specifically, the
Protecting goodwill: When in doubt, be kind!
For many people the word “BOSS” on a piece of clothing evokes the German luxury fashion house Hugo Boss. (Employers usually don’t need to affix a BOSS mark on their clothes to signal their position.)
Yet for some, especially in
Domain Names and Online Trademarks: When is a Consumer Confused?
As more businesses move online, the value and importance of domain names and online trademark enforcement grows. The Superior Court of Quebec has reaffirmed that a confusing domain can land your business in legal trouble.
The dispute arose between the