A small exercise for your legal skills. Please identify legal problems and issues concerning those two posters. First one is the advertising poster of Jacek Graniecki’s music achievements, he is better known in Poland as TEDE. The second one was used to promote a movie titled “Karol: A Man Who Became Pope“.
Archive for: May, 2008
Poland: Primus Inter Pares
May 27th, 2008, Tomasz RychlickiThe Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported on a Polish Patent Office decision, case file Sp. 371/07, regarding the Latin slogan “primus inter pares“. The PPO decided that Niezależne Zrzeszenie Studentów (Independent Students’ Union, NZS) registered this mark in bad faith. The PPO based its findings on the fact that NZS’s director used to be a member of Zrzeszenie Studentów Polskich (Polish Students Association, ZSP). This is the organization that opposed the registration of “primus inter pares” and which has used this slogan since the early sixties. ZSP had also previously tried to register the same trade mark in 1989. Both Parties may lodge a complaint to the Administration Court.
I have previously reported this case in a post entitled “Poland: prior tempore potior iure in primus inter pares?“.
What a disclaimer
May 26th, 2008, Tomasz RychlickiNot so long time ago I’ve published a post entitled “Enforcing EULAs“. Meanwhile, looking through the net I found such release as Ahead.Nero.v8.3.2.1.Incl.Keymaker-EMBRACE and I’ve also noticed such a statement in the .nfo file.
EMBRACE, nor its members, can be held responsible
for anything they release. If it is illegal in your
country (as it is in most), you ARE NOT ALLOWED to
use it, under any circumstances. We are in the scene
for the fun, NOT to harm software developers. Good
software deserves your respect, go buy it!Our software is released “as is”. We are in no way
to be blamed for anything that happens to your pc if
you use this. The author here by disclaims all the
warranties related to this software, expresed or
implid, including damage to hardware/software and/or
any date from the user of this product.Your use of this product assumes that you have read
and accepted this disclaimer.
Do I need to mention that it is really easy to aviod any legal problems just by the use of free software alternatives? More details regarding this .nfo file are available at nfodb.com website. Some of my post that may touch similar issues are gathered under contract law category.
Johnson & Johnson and the Red Cross had amicably shared use of the distinctive symbol since 1895 but in 2004 ARC started to license the symbol to other companies for use in commerce. J&J was annoyed and the judgment in Johnson & Johnson v. Am. Nat’l Red Cross, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39113 (S.D.N.Y. May 14, 2008) is the outcome.
I do not want to brag about myself but I wrote once in the post entitled “The Law” that I want to write some article. You may wonder what has happened after almost two years since I’ve issued such statement?
Legal context: This article deals with most important legal questions regarding graffiti. It seeks to identify issues that may arise in copyright and trade mark law. The analysis is based on selected international, Polish, UK, US and European Union regulations.
Key points and practical significance: The social phenomenon known as graffiti is not legally indifferent. However, there are few articles dealing with those issues relevant in IP law. The author presents a short overview of the contemporary graffiti movement. He then presents important IP legal problems that may arise as regards to graffiti activity and briefly analyzes those issues relevant to domestic and international legal regimes.
Key Words: Most graffiti is illegal, but that does not mean that interesting IP questions do not arise in relation to this cultural phenomenon. Following a short overview of the contemporary graffiti movement, the author article seeks to analyse some of the basic questions that arise concerning copyright protection and industrial property law. The author calls for a more focused analysis in the future of this controversial problem.
T. Rychlicki, “Legal questions about illegal art“, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 2008 3(6):393-401; doi:10.1093/jiplp/jpn058.
90th Anniversary of the Polish Patent Office
May 21st, 2008, Tomasz RychlickiOn 28 December 1918, the Polish Patent Office was established. The Republic of Poland has entered into the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property on 10 November 1919, joining international cooperation in this field. The first registration of a Polish national trade mark took place on 11 April 1924 and the first Polish national patent was granted on 24 April 1924.
In October 2008 the PPO will hold an international conference devoted to history of industrial property in independent Poland. The Polish Patent Office has also published its bilingual jubilee report, which can be retrieved as a PDF file.
Meet the Bloggers IV
May 15th, 2008, Tomasz RychlickiMay 19, 2008.From 20:30 to 22:30 at Potsdamer Platz 1, 10785 Berlin. Herzlich willkommen. There will be representatives of:
Afro-IP
Catch Us If You Can !!!
Class 46
IMPACT
IP Finance
IPEG
IPJUR
IPKat
Lucentinus
Naked Law
Petit Musee des Marques
Peter Groves
Seattle Trademark Lawyer
SOLO IP
Spicy IP
The Trademark Blog
Transblawg
TTABlog
The first “Meet the Bloggers” was held in San Diego in 2005. Marty Schwimmer (The Trademark Blog) and John Welch (TTABlog) were the first one to meet.
Poland: one beer for Euro 2012
May 15th, 2008, Tomasz RychlickiIn the article entitled “Mecze z jednym piwem“, the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reports about the statement issued by Tomasz Zahorski who is representing the PL2012 Company. PL2012 was created by the decision of Ministry of Sport and Tourism of the Republic of Poland and it is responsible for coordination and supervising the organization of UEFA Euro 2012.
Strong protection of UEFA’s trade marks, designs and watchwords will distinguish Polish-Ukrainian championships
said Mr Zahorski during the meeting with the representatives of Polish cities in which football games will be held. In this connection, open-air bars in which football games are usually screened will be built by only one sponsor.
Skype gives up
May 9th, 2008, Tomasz RychlickiSkype has withdrawn the appeal against a judgment in the case LG München I, Az. 7 O 5245/07 – Welte/Skype, unpublished. Harald Welte has written more details.
The various arguments by Skype supporting their claim that the GPL is violating German anti-trust legislation as well as further claims aiming at the GPL being invalid or incompatible with German legislation were not further analyzed by the court.
The argument that GPL violates anti-trust law was already discussed before the US courts in the case Wallace v. IBM, 467 F.3d 1104 (7th Cir. 2006). Chief Judge Frank Hoover Easterbrook wrote explicitly:
The GPL and open-source software have nothing to fear from the antitrust laws.
Poland: no risk of confusion between Chanel and Chantal
May 9th, 2008, Tomasz RychlickiIn the article entitled “Chantal nie koliduje z marką Chanel“, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita about recent decision of the Polish Patent Office, case act signature Sp. 161/07, regarding the registration of Chantal trade mark. Przedsiębiorstwo Produkcyjno-Handlowe Chantal Roman Godek applied for CHANTAL trade mark registration in classes 3 and 5 in 2002. The PPO issued its positive decision and registered CHANTAL R-170165 trade mark on 16 December 2006. Chanel opposed. The PPO acknowledged the reputation of Chanel mark and similarity of goods, however the Opposition Board also concluded that both marks are not alike in this manner that it would lead to the risk of consumers confusion. The Board also noted that the clientele to which those products are directed differs. The decision is not final and is not binding.