The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multi-national trade agreement that has been developing behind closed doors for the past several years. Bits and pieces of the text have leaked over time, but recently the entire draft chapter on Intellectual Property protection has been released by WikiLeaks. The TPP marks the largest economic treaty to-date, which encompasses nations including the U.S., Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.
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Twitter’s IP Concerns Amid Public Offering
In the days before its initial public offering, Twitter expressed a number of intellectual property woes in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commision.
Antigua & Barbuda Planning to Launch Piracy Platform
The Government of Antigua is preparing to excercise its right to compel treaty obligations after attempts to negotiate the decade long dispute over online gambling have failed. In January, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body voted to allow Antigua to suspend its obligations to the U.S. under the TRIPS Agreement. As a result, the Government of Antigua announced plans to launch a platform to “[exploit] the suspension of American intellectual property rights” according to a recent press release by the government of Antigua.
Google Wins on Fair Use Defense in Google Books Library Project
Earlier this month, the District Court for the Southern District of New York, on remand from the 2nd Circuit, sided with Google in the copyright infringement proceedings that began in 2005 over the Google Books Library Project. Judge Chin, presiding over the case, agreed that Google Books provided “significant public benefit”, and accepted Google’s fair use defense for the scanning of more than 20 million books for an electronic database, and making snippets of the text available for online searches.
Federal Circuit Provides Guidance on Patentability Test for Design Patents
Somewhat analogously to the nuances between the standards for trademark registration versus infringement, which are sometimes confused, the patentability standard for design patents is different from the design patent infringement test. In a recent Federal Circuit decision, High Point Design LLC et al. v. Buyers Direct, Inc., the Federal Circuit provided some helpful guidelines for evaluating patentability for design patents, particularly regarding “obviousness” (merely obvious ornamental designs are not patentable).
Team Malloy Wins 4th Annual Patently Impossible Race for Charity
Firm associates W. John Eagan, Chris Traina, and Tony Guo took first prize at the 2013 Patently Impossible Project, a charity race to assemble a mystery invention benefitting Dade Legal Aid. This year’s competition featured a toy car powered by a salt water battery, assembled using only a parts kit and a patent application. The winner’s car was the first to cross the finish line.