The Advertising Standards Authority has carried out a study into advertising and the impact gender stereotyping may have on the general public. The report looked at how gender assumptions that are promoted in advertising, such as “typical” male and female roles and body image, are harmful and whether the ASA has been doing enough to…
DetailsOn 26 July 2017, in the matter of Coty Germany GmbH v Parfümerie Akzente GmbH, at the European Court of Justice, Advocate General Wahl, stated a supplier of luxury goods may prohibit its authorised retailers from selling its products on third-party platforms such as Amazon or eBay. Coty Germany is a luxury cosmetic brand, who…
Details‘Spider-Man’ recently returned to the big screen, making a cameo in Marvel Studios’ ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and now in a new standalone Sony Pictures’ film entitled ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’. Many fans had been calling for the ‘friendly neighbourhood hero’ to appear alongside Marvel’s other on screen superheroes, but this was more complicated than it may appear.…
DetailsIn 2006, the CSI Effect was prevalent throughout the criminal courts of America, with jurors questioning forensic evidence through information that had been learned off of the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigations. The technical term for the CSI Effect is ‘any of several ways in which the exaggerated portrayal of forensic science on crime…
DetailsA recent case of man vs. animal has brought into debate whether or not an animal can possess the copyright to an image. The case of Naruto v. David John Slater et al. has caused this debate after the image of the ‘monkey selfie’ went viral in 2011. David Slater travelled to Indonesia to photograph…
DetailsAt the end of April, the new Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017 received Royal Assent, with an expectation the provisions will come into force in October. As we reported last February, the new threats legislation had been steadily marching through parliament and, despite the snap general election which had been called mid-April, the Bill…
DetailsSo I’ve just had baby – strictly speaking it was actually my wife who had the baby, I mainly just cheered her on and let her squeeze my hand. It’s our first and so naturally we’ve been obsessing over every detail of our new daughter’s upbringing, desperately trying to ensure that we haven’t forgotten to…
DetailsWhat better treat for a Briffa Celebrates summer visit than to Chin Chin Lab’s new Dessert Emporium in Soho. I have been a fan of Chin Chin ever since it opened its Nitro Lab in Camden 7 years ago and thrilled when we started helping them with their intellectual property matters. Run by young and…
DetailsThe UK Intellectual Property Office (“UK IPO”) has recently released a document showing the likely timeline of a UK trade mark application, from filing to registration. The timeline can be viewed here. So is there anything we would add? The UK IPO suggests that the first step is to “check if you can register your…
DetailsSpotify is getting sued in two separate lawsuits for copyright infringement. A Nashville-based publisher and a songwriter claim that the streaming service did not obtain the necessary licenses to stream works from their respective catalogues. In one lawsuit, Bob Gaudio (a songwriter and founding member of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) is suing Spotify…
DetailsThe Gluten Intolerance Group (‘GIG’) of North America has knifed back at Jamie Oliver and Jamie Oliver Enterprises (‘Jamie Oliver’) for trade mark infringement, counterfeiting and unfair competition. The complaint filed on 7th July at the US District Court for the Western District of Washington (the US state where GIG is based and where one…
DetailsSometime in the mid 1990’s on a family outing to Highgate Cemetery against background wails of “What are we doing here?” and “Why can’t we just go to the playground like normal children?” I was asked by a Japanese tourist for directions to the grave of Karl Marx. Having sent her on her way and before…
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