The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision on June 10, 2019 holding that the Government was not a “person” capable of instituting one of the three AIA patent review proceeding described below.  This holding overturned a prior decision by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) in favor of the United States Postal Service (USPS) that the Government was a “person” eligible to petition for a covered business method (CBM) review.…

The recent judgment in ATB Sales Limited v Rich Energy Limited [2019] EWHC 1207 (IPEC) illustrates the difficulties parties will have in defending copyright infringement claims over artistic works, if they can only provide limited documentary proof of the creative design process. Background ATB Sales Limited (“Claimant”) brought the action against three Defendants: Rich Energy Limited (“First Defendant”); Mr William Stoney, the director and sole shareholder of the First Defendant (“Second Defendant”); and Mr Sean…

On 5 June 2019, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) published its ruling on the classification of SkypeOut in the EU following a request for a preliminary ruling from the Belgian Courts. Skype is a Voice over IP service (VoIP) and the ‘SkypeOut’ component is an interconnected VoIP service that allows the service to dial out to landline and mobile numbers. The CJEU determined that the SkypeOut service is an electronic communications service…

  The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has recently launched its “Small Print, Big Difference” campaign which encourages travel businesses to be upfront and clear with consumer customers. Although the campaign has been launched with a holiday and travel focus (following the CMA’s investigation into online hotel booking websites), and is supported by ABTA, many of the requirements will also apply to other consumer facing businesses. A question of fairness  The…

In VersaTop Support Sys., LLC v. Ga. Expo, Inc., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 11404 (Fed. Cir.  Apr. 19, 2019), the Federal Circuit turned its eye to the Trademark Statute and reaffirmed that the cornerstone of an infringement action under the Lanham Act – with or without “use in commerce” as that term is defined in Section 1127 (Section 45 of the Lanham Act) – is the likelihood of confusion.…

Squire Patton Boggs’ partner, and one of the editors of this blog, Tamara Fraizer has been named as one of the most influential women in IP by World Intellectual Property Review. Tamara has been recognised for her expertise across the life sciences, consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical industries (amongst others) as one of the 80 most prominent female lawyers, alongside attorneys, solicitors, barristers and other practitioners from around the world. Congratulations Tamara – we couldn’t…

The Supreme Court’s decision today in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology LLC resolved longstanding uncertainty at the intersection of trademark and bankruptcy law.  In particular, the Court determined whether the rejection of a trademark license in a bankruptcy case deprives the trademark licensee of its rights under the license for which it had likely paid a lot of money. …