News of the Week; May 20, 2020

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. A welcome and timely boost for trade secret protection in Canada
2. Fashion House Sued for Lively Snaps
3. The makeup of protection of a makeup store layout: a missed chance to apply the Cofemel decision?
4. Quaran-streaming: Music licensing and your online business
5. Copyright Making Sure That MTV Remains An Irrelevant Relic, Rather Than A Cultural Icon
6. What’s the Deal with Comedians?: Too Late for Copyright Claim against Seinfeld
7. Victory for Michael Jordan After 8-Year Chinese Trademark Battle
8. Google v Oracle: The Copyright Case of the Decade
9. IP update: recent development in EU copyright law: stim & sami v fleetmanager Sweden ab & nordisk biluthyrning ab (c-753/18)
10. Copyright As Censorship: WSJ Identifies Hundreds Of Bogus News Takedowns; People Blame Google Rather Than Copyright
11. Libraries Have Never Needed Permission To Lend Books, And The Move To Change That Is A Big Problem
12. Canadian Federal Court of Appeal applies new standard of review in appeal of registrar
13. New Nice Classification requirements – do classes matter in Canada?
14. Sussex Royal – if at first you don’t succeed…
15. What businesses need to consider before a brand (re)launch: lessons from SUSSEX ROYAL
16. Federal Circuit Holds Packaging Color Combinations Can Be Inherently Distinctive
17. The Parameters of Generic Marks: Booking.com before the Supreme Court
18. Don’t SULKA: Trademark Plaintiff Must Demonstrate Intent, Ability to Use Mark
19. No Luck Needed for Lucky Brand at the Supreme Court
20. Supreme Court Rules Lucky Brand’s Defense Not Barred Under Defense Preclusion
21. Get Lucky: U.S. Supreme Court Sides With Lucky Brand in Overturning “Defense Preclusion” Ruling
22. The Supreme Court Declines to Revamp Preclusion Law in Lucky v. Marcel Trademark Dispute
23. A Lucky Day for Lucky Brand: U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Second Circuit’s Defense Preclusion Test
24. Defense in Trademark Action Not Precluded by Failure to Raise Same Defense in Earlier Action
25. Romag Fasteners: SCOTUS Holds That Plaintiffs in Trademark Suits Need Not Show “Willful Intent” of Infringement to Recover Damages for Lost Profits
26. IP Insight: DC Comics Prevail in Trade Mark Opposition against Magic Box
27. HT Media and Hindustan Media Venture c. Brainlink International on hindustan.com: the chess game is underway
28. Gömböc: CJEU provides clarity on the protectability of 3D trade marks
29. How to bring an intermediary to justice in a domain name dispute
30. WIPO data reveals rise in international trademark applications originating from Africa
31. Focusing on Functionality, Software Claims Found Patent Eligible
32. The “Plotting” Thickens: Claims that Solve Known Problem with Known Methods Are Obvious
33. First decision under amended PMNOC Regulations: Federal Court finds Amgen’s filgrastim patent obvious
34. G 3/19 – Tomatoes and Broccoli Now Overturned
35. EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal Decision G 3/19 and the patentability of plant and animal products in Europe
36. European Patent Office denies patentability of plants and animals obtained by essentially biological processes (G 3/19 “Pepper”)
37. “Delivery Failed”: Shopping Notification Patent Lost Under § 101
38. Managing Your VR/AR IP Portfolio During Covid-19
39. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Patent Prosecution Update: 2020 Q1 Prosecution Statistics
40. Thinking ahead: The impact of insolvency on IP rights
41. The Associated Press Has Some Explaining To Do About Its ‘Tweeted Contract’ To Reuse Viral Content
42. Think Tank’s Posting of Substantially Cropped Photo of Heartthrob Governor Constitutes Fair Use
43. Facebook Acquires GIF Database GIPHY In Reported $400 Million Deal
44. Facebook is buying Giphy and integrating it with Instagram: Plans to integrate with Instagram and other apps
45. All your reaction GIFs now belong to Facebook, as it buys Giphy for $400M
46. Luxury and online marketplaces – the next chapter (Coty v Amazon)
47. When audio deepfakes put words in Jay-Z’s mouth, did he have a legal case?
48. Reboot Required: Artificial Intelligence System Cannot Be Named As An Inventor Under U.S. Patent Law, USPTO Says
49. USPTO Refuses to Recognize AI Inventorship, but Policy Questions Still Linger
50. Using AI to invent therapeutics: should artificial intelligence be recognised for inventive activity?
51. London’s Facial Recognition Rollout Trips Over The Pandemic As Facemasks Render The System Even More Useless
52. Nintendo sues Switch hack resellers in ongoing fight against Team Xecutor: Platform holder continues to crack down on groups enabling pirated games to run on its console
53. With new Switch-hacking tech looming, Nintendo targets retailers
54. Ubisoft suing Google and Apple for selling Rainbow Six: Siege ‘carbon copy’
55. Disney clamps down on Club Penguin clones following abuse allegations
56. Disney: If We Can’t Run Club Penguin, No One Can Run Club Penguin
57. Blizzard Takes New Stance on Custom Game IP
58. Doom Eternal reverses course, will remove kernel-level Denuvo anti-cheat
59. Valve Releases ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Steam Workshop Tools for Making & Downloading Mods
60. King has opened up and relinquished control of the Defold game engine
61. King makes Defold engine open source: Candy Crush firm sets up Defold Foundation to handle the tech’s development going forward
62. Unreal Engine is Now Royalty-free for the First $1 Million in Revenue
63. Controller pros are dominating PC Fortnite thanks to “overpowered” aim assist
64. Ubisoft offers Assassin’s Creed: Discovery Tour modes for free for one week – Educational explorations of ancient Greece and Egypt made available to encourage learning from home
65. Minecraft has sold 200 million copies in 11 years
66. U.S. Patent no. 10,315,113: System and method for simulating gameplay of nonplayer characters distributed across networked end user devices

Jon