Ireland IP & Technology Law Blog : Dublin Lawyers & Attorneys for Intellectual Property, Communications & Information Technology Law in Ireland, U.S. & England

The CJEU has held* that EU law precludes an injunction requiring an online social networking provider to install a system for filtering information stored on its servers by users, in order to prevent files from being made available to the public in breach of copyright.

The Belgian court asked the CJEU whether Directives 2000/31 (the E-Commerce Directive), 2001/29 (the InfoSoc Directive), and 2004/48 (the Enforcement Directive), were to be interpreted as precluding a national court from issuing an injunction against a hosting service provider requiring it to install a filtering system. It was not in dispute that the owner of an online social networking platform, such as Netlog, which stores information provided by users of that platform on it servers, was a hosting service provider within the meaning of Article 14 of the E-Commerce Directive.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

All spectacle wearers will sit up and take note of this recent decision from the UK Court of Appeal (see judgment here).

The Court of Appeal held that the use of the phrase “Be a real spec saver at Asda” would not lead to a likelihood of confusion but that it did take unfair advantage of the distinctive reputation and character of the well known Specsaver marks.

Specsavers owns registered Community trade marks for the words SPECSAVERS, as well as for a number of logos comprising overlapping ovals. Two of the logo marks incorporate the word mark ‘Specsavers’, the third does not and was described as the 'wordless' logo. Specsavers sued for infringement of its marks and Asda applied for the wordless logo to be revoked on the grounds of non-use. Specsavers argued that it had been used through its use as part of the other logos which included the word 'Specsavers’.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The SFI Research Centres Programme will consolidate the existing Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) Programme and Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) Programme into a ‘single-entry’ competition. The SFI informed attendees at a meeting on 26 January 2012 that it is soliciting proposals to create new research centres, or to extend the activity of existing research centres. SFI Research Centres will be eligible to receive up to six years of funding for its core activities and will also be eligible to receive funding for a number of targeted projects, each of which must include one or more industry partners. SFI is accepting initial expressions of interest now and closing date for same is 12 March 2012. There is a further information meeting being held on 10 February 2012 for interested industry parties.

SFI anticipates offering funding of between €1m and €5m per annum for SFI Research Centres, and anticipates funding a number of centres of diverse scale, proportionate to this funding range.

Proposals must have substantial industry participation, including, co-funding of research activities through cash, in kind contributions, or a combination of both.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The European Commission has published the final text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which is an agreement aimed at strengthening the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights and combating counterfeiting and piracy. The European Union participated in the negotiation of this agreement and has also published “10 myths about ACTA” to dispel the allegations that ACTA is unlike the US SOPA legislation.

ACTA sets out the legal framework and enforcement practices for enforcement of IP rights as follows. Although some of the framework is fairly high level, leaving a lot to individual a Member State’s discretion, there are also some meatier terms. The main controversy around ACTA has been around the provisions addressing infringement in the digital environment The ACTA provides, at Section 5, paragraph 2 that: 

Each Party’s enforcement procedures shall apply to infringement of copyright or related rights over digital networks, which may include the unlawful use of means of widespread distribution for infringing purposes. These procedures shall be implemented in a manner that avoids the creation of barriers to legitimate activity, including electronic commerce, and, consistent with each Party’s law, preserves fundamental principles such as freedom of expression, fair process, and privacy.

• Email This
• Print
• Share Link