News

Monday, February 24, 2020

CJEU, C-175/18 P: The principle of public access to EU documents and its exceptions, applied to the request for access to medicinal products’ marketing authorization applications

The Court of Justice on the rules about public access to documents, in a case concerning the request for access to a medicinal product's MA file. The Court excluded the application of the general presumption of confidentiality.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

C-371/18: the CJEU sheds some light on the interpretation of EU trade mark law concerning marks lacking sufficient clarity and precision and registration in bad faith

Trade marks cannot be declared wholly or partially invalid for lack of sufficient clarity and precision with regard to the specification of goods and services. Applying to register a mark with no intention to use, or intending to use it only for some goods and services may amount to bad faith.

Monday, February 10, 2020

CJEU “Generics and Others”(C-307/18): competition law concerns of settlement agreements in pharmaceutical matters between the patent holder and the generics manufacturer

The EU Court of Justice rules on the competition law aspects of agreements settling patent disputes between the patent owner and the manufacturers of the corresponding generics drugs.

Monday, February 3, 2020

Corte di Cassazione, ruling no. 735/2020: on the infringement of new plant varieties and on the exclusion of ex officio invalidity questions

The Italian Supreme Court ruled in a new plant variety infringement matter, confirming the Court of Appeal’s conclusions that the variety had been infringed through the cultivation of the plant without the prior authorisation of the IP holders. The decision includes an interesting analysis of Courts duties and powers regarding invalidity claims of new varieties and IP titles in general.

Friday, January 31, 2020

C-311/18 (“Schrems II”), AG’s Opinion: Commission Decision 2010/87 on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors established in third countries is valid

Transfer of personal data towards third countries: the AG suggests that Commission Decision 2010/87/EU, establishing standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors established in third countries, is compliant with Art. 7, 8 and 47 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as it includes mechanisms ensuring that unlawful transfers can be suspended or prohibited, thus ensuring protection of the data subjects’ fundamental rights.

Monday, January 27, 2020

Corte di Cassazione, ruling no. 31932/2019: former owners of an intellectual property title are indispensable parties to an action for revocation or invalidity

The Italian Supreme Court on legal standing in patent invalidity proceedings: it is mandatory that also subjects who transferred their rights on the patent be joined to invalidity proceedings, since they are recorded in the register as owners, pursuant to art. 122, paragraph 4, IPC.

Monday, January 13, 2020

The CJEU on the exhaustion of digital goods: copyright exhaustion does not apply to e-books – C-263/18, 19 December 2019

Copyright exhaustion does not apply to e-books, whose resale is to be considered as a communication to the public – pursuant to art. 3 of Directive EC 2001/29 - not as a means of distribution of the work – under art. 4 of the same directive.

Friday, January 10, 2020

The Court of Rome on marks including superlatives and the consequences of bankruptcy of a defendant, while the trademark case is still pending

A mark including a superlative found infringed by a mark with the same superlative and other aspects similar to the earlier mark; the bankruptcy of a defendant while a trial is pending involves the inadmissibility of monetary claims against that party within the pending case.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

The protection of the PGI "Aceto Balsamico di Modena" does not extend to the use of its individual non-geographical terms

CJEU, C-432/18: the PGI “Aceto Balsamico di Modena” is protected as a whole. Hence, the common terms “aceto” and “balsamico” of said PGI do not enjoy individual protection - 4 December 2019.

Friday, December 6, 2019

C-567/18 (Coty/Amazon): AG’s Opinion: the boundaries of e-commerce intermediaries’ liability for trademark infringement, caused by goods stocked by the intermediaries but sold by third parties

AG Campos Sanchez-Bordona suggests a distinction between electronic intermediaries based on their actual involvement: exempting from liability custodians carrying out ancillary activities, provided they do not intervene in the infringement knowingly or with reasonable grounds to be aware of it, whilst not exempting subjects practically involved in putting third parties vendors’ goods on the market.