Clifford Chance

Global Intellectual Property Newsletter - 21st Edition - IP topics around the globe

21 March 2019

We welcome you to the 21st edition of our Global IP Newsletter in which we would like to shed once again some light on current topics in the world of Intellectual Property.

With Brexit looming on 29 March 2019, this March edition will begin with a brief overview about potential consequences of Brexit for the protection of IP rights in Germany and Europe, in particular with respect to Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law and Data Protection.

We will then focus on another current topic: the European trademark law reform in the context of the 2015 EU Directive which were needed to be transposed into the national laws of the Member States. The most important changes and novelties of the Reform will be highlighted from a German, Spanish and Polish law perspective. Staying with the topic of Trademark Law, this edition will touch on recent case law by the Italian Supreme Court regarding the infringement of a renowned three-dimensional fashion trademark.

Turning to Copyright Law, the article by our Italian colleagues discusses the protectability of a TV format as copyrighted work and, inter alia, the legal pre‑requisites that need to be fulfilled in order to proof protectability.

With respect to the use of Open Source Software, we will outline the “Do’s and Don’ts” in the course of a company’s software development and business activities regarding the use and commercialization of self-developed and/or in-licensed software in order to be compliant with the many possible Open Source Software license terms.

The remaining two articles deal with a ground-breaking decision of the court of Rome finding Facebook liable for failing to remove links to videos and images covered by Mediaset’s copyrights followed by an overview about a series of recent measures to by the Chinese legislator to enhance IP protection in China.

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