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Work Area: Designs

Design patent enforcers must mind procedural requirements for injunctive relief

Enforcing IP rights against China-based online counterfeiters has always been like ‘whack-a-mole’ and now the Federal Circuit has introduced a new hole into the game

A ‘brand’ new approach to intellectual asset mapping at Spotify

An updated framework allows for renewed understanding of the way that a broad array of potential brand assets can drive value for knowledge companies

Strategies to leverage design patents as key assets for companies

Lower cost enables IP holders to file quickly and often, gaining early exclusionary rights to block competitors and protect market share

Latest content

The trademark used as evidence to challenge a design patent in China

Featured in IAM Innovation & Invention Yearbook 2023

On 2 June 2022, data from the Chinese Patent Office showed that a Renault SAS design patent (ZL202130363449.5) with the name “Automobile” was declared as invalid in its entirety for conflict with a registered trademark owned by Human Horizon, who filed the invalidation action.

29 September 2022

IP and innovation inclusion takes a village: a Meta perspective

As the Advancing Diversity Across Patent Teams programme launches, Micheal L Binns expands on the company’s DEI efforts

29 July 2022

Lego’s EU design registration benefits from modular system exception

The EUIPO has ruled that Lego’s brick design is solely dictated by technical function, but being part of a modular system saves it from invalidation. It remains to be seen whether other products will turn to the modular system exception.

27 July 2022

UK government reveals plans to simplify design rights system

Plans to simplify the country’s design system published, following a recent call for views on the existing framework

13 July 2022

The top design and trademark filers at the EUIPO revealed

L'Oréal was the leading corporate applicant for EU trademarks across 12 months, according to office data

07 July 2022

Parody defence unsuccessful in Louis Vuitton infringement case

In Taiwan, a parody must be humorous, ironic or critical, while also being entertaining and contain the contradictory characteristics of the original and the unoriginal. Failure to prove this may result in criminal liability.

20 April 2022

What a unified US Intellectual Property Office could mean for policy and practice

Tillis staffer says proposal could address national IP policymaking that sometimes seems “disjointed”, but open questions include where the new agency would sit and how it would fund itself

18 March 2022

IP risk management has never been more important

Saturday Opinion: Understandably, the challenges to rights holders posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are not a frontline issue, but they exist nevertheless. Businesses need to understand what they are and then mitigate them

12 March 2022

The digital transformation of IP management still has a long way to go

Saturday Opinion: Though digital IP tools have come a long way, Anushka Arya and Nigel Wong of Rouse Consultancy argue that they have yet to make inroads into the most high-level areas of decision making

12 February 2022

New wave of fitness-related patent litigation driven by booming market and brand concerns

Recent lawsuits involving Nike, Peloton, lululemon and others suggest an explosion in consumer demand for high-tech workout gear is leading to IP conflict

11 January 2022

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