The stage and characters in the world of IP continue to evolve and staying ahead of the curve is critical for IP professionals towards providing informed advice to clients or corporate departments on best next steps in IP protection, enforcement and monetization. GEVERS has designed the “…on the edge of IP” newsletter to assist you with ‘edgy’ subject matters IP in the EU. Let’s take a look at our ‘building block’ articles from the past 12 months!
You must have been living on Mars lately to not know that the metaverse is the next best thing. One can give several definitions to the metaverse, but – simply put – it is a network of interconnected 3D virtual spaces in which users can interact with each other via avatars. The fun thing about such a metaverse world, is that people can experience things which cannot be experienced, our which are at least more difficult to experience, in the real world. Via the metaverse you can for example walk across the Great Wall of China with one simple click of your mouse while doing the same thing in real life will cost more effort and money.
Today the metaverse is still a mystery to many. There are more questions than answers. Particularly in relation intellectual property rights (“IPR”) infringements in these emerging worlds. We will (a least attempt) to unravel some of these mysteries.
There are different categories of patent claims that can be used. In general, a distinction can be made between two different categories.
A first general category of patent claims is the “product claim”, which relates to physical entities such as products, devices and apparatuses, but can also include, for example, chemical substances and compositions.
A second general category of patent claims is the “process claim”, which relates to activities, such as methods, processes and uses, as long as some material product is used for effecting such activities. However, there are some exceptions to this which are explicitly excluded from patentability, such as biological processes for the production of plants or animals, and surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic methods for treatment of the human or animal body. Whereas, product claims relating to products for the use in surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic methods are permitted.
In Europe, according to the EPC and its Protocol on Interpretation (Protocol herein after), the claims should be interpreted adopting a balanced approach that combines a fair protection for the patent holder with a reasonable degree of certainty for third parties.
In this perspective, the claims should not be interpreted strictly, in the sense of only the dictionary definition of a certain wording. Conversely, these claims should not be treated as mere guidelines, since the claims play a determinative part in deciding on the patent’s scope. The Protocol thus requires a middle ground between the two extremes to guarantee a balance between fairness to the patent holder and giving the public reasonable certainty as to what the claims actually cover.
Filing Patents is often an important aspect for implementing an intellectual property strategy for innovative companies. Patents are however not the only way to protect an invention. In fact, in some cases, filing a patent application is not recommended.
Indeed, a patent application is usually published 18 months after filing (or the priority date), which means that all the technical details and know-how described in it will become publicly available. This simple fact may have important ramifications for your business and will influence the way you protect your innovation.
It also raises important questions, like: Do you really want to give access to your competitors to the technical data and know-how of your inventions or do you want to keep all this information secret? Does it make sense to systematically file a patent for every invention?
In 2021, Collins dictionary chose NFT (Non-Fungible Token) as the “word of the year”. While you might have heard about the person who paid $69 million for a video by Beeple, or Mr. Jack Dorsey (the founder of Twitter), who sold the first tweet for just under $3 million through NFT’s, most business and brand owners are still oblivious as to what an NFT is and how important it can be for your IP portfolio.
The authorship of AI creations has already been the subject of much debate and some interesting articles have been published about this topic. However, the first condition about the qualification of an AI creation has been underexposed so far; can AI creations qualify as a “work” to start with? And, can AI creations even be protected under EU copyright?
The first hurdle in obtaining the registration of your trademark is the examination on absolute grounds. Many trademarks containing references to the green gold are refused for descriptiveness or lack of distinctive character. Some are even considered contrary to public
policy or accepted principles of morality.
The metaverse might just be the next big thing. But how will you protect your brands in the metaverse? Even if you are not an early adopter, it is better to be safe than sorry. Read on to find out more about trademark protection for all things metaverse from a general EU trademark perspective.
With respect to project developments, often times it is necessary to engage in discussions with third parties, including strategic information concerning the project without binding the parties to any cooperation agreement that regulates their working relationship.
However, it is important that the confidential nature of this information be preserved to protect the owner of the ‘strategic information’ and any advantage it affords them.
As you may have heard, 2022 – 2023 will become a time for important changes for the European patent system. As these changes will also affect existing European Patents and European Patent Applications (European Patent Rights), we feel it is important we inform you on these changes.
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