Insights

The rules governing address for service for intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom will change after the UK exits the European Union on 1 January 2020. Subject to legislative implementation, which is expected this week, from 1 January 2021 the UKIPO will no longer accept addresses in the EEA as a valid address for service. As a result, any party wishing to file an application for a trade mark, patent or registered design will need to appoint an address for service within the UK, Gibraltar or the Channel Islands.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (“the CJEU”) has recently issued a judgement concerning the genuine use of Ferrari’s German TESTAROSSA trade mark registrations. This judgement was a positive outcome for Ferrari, and is particularly beneficial to owners of legacy and heritage brands.

The solar energy industry has seen an extremely rapid development in the past decade. In 2019 alone, we saw over 140 GW of new photovoltaic (PV) power generation capacity installed, leading to the total global PV power generation capacity of 583.5 GW (580.1 GW on-grid and 3.4 GW of off-grid [1]) at the end of 2019. This means more than one fifth of renewable energy in the world today is generated by PV technology.However, whilst it is only in recent years that we have witnessed a dramatic improvement of the technical and economic feasibilities of PV power generation, it should be remembered that such improvement is an achievement enabled by nearly two centuries of technical and commercial development.

Virgin Hyperloop recently made the news after announcing it had completed a successful trial of its hyperloop technology in Nevada, USA. During the test, human passengers were propelled along a test track in the desert at speeds of up to 107 mph (172 km/h). This article looks at how Virgin Hyperloop and its competitors are seeking to protect hyperloop innovations as they try to commercialise a technology that was first conceived over 100 years ago. A previous article looked at which companies are filing patents for e-scooter inventions

The EPO recently reported the results of an ongoing pilot project for Opposition hearings by videoconference (ViCo) and at the same time announced that all Examination and Opposition oral proceedings between 4 January 2021 and 15 September 2021 will be held by ViCo.Opposition hearings will be delayed until after 15th September 2021 only where there are serious reasons preventing the use of ViCo and agreement of the parties to the proceedings is no longer required.

In March 2013 the mark was granted registration under EUTM No 010914836 in Classes 9, 20 and 35. The protected goods included “Smart phones, Mobile computing devices, tablets” and “Furniture”, while the services included the retailing, wholesaling and mail order of these and other goods. On 29 February 2016, Samsung Electronics GmbH (“Samsung”) applied for a declaration that the registration was invalid on the basis that the mark was non-distinctive and descriptive in relation to all of the protected goods and services. However, the Cancellation Division rejected Samsung’s application and the registration was maintained. The Cancellation Division found that the term “SMART THINGS” was descriptive, and noted that the figurative element “:)” (“the emoticon”) is ubiquitously used as a smiley in society at large, including in business, and has positive connotations. However, the Cancellation Division held that the emoticon endowed the mark with at least a minimum of distinctive character and meant that the mark as a whole was not purely descriptive.