Bloomberg Law: Hermès Defeats MetaBirkins in the First NFT Trademark Trial (1). “Luxury brand Hermès International SA won its lawsuit against the digital artist behind ‘MetaBirkin’ nonfungible tokens after convincing a Manhattan federal jury that Mason Rothschild’s sale of the NFTs violated Hermès’ rights to the ‘Birkin’ trademark.”
IP Watchdog: How to Use the USPTO Patent Public Search Tool. “Do you want a simple way to search for specific patents and to get PDF copies of those patents? And do you want those PDF files to come straight from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), so you can be confident that they contain any Certificates of Correction? Our first article in a series about the USPTO’s Public Patent Search (PPS) web page shows you how.”
Wall Street Journal: ‘Deepfakes’ of Celebrities Have Begun Appearing in Ads, With or Without Their Permission. “Authorized deepfakes could allow marketers to feature huge stars in ads without requiring them to actually appear on-set or before cameras, bringing down costs and opening new creative possibilities. But unauthorized, they create a legal gray area: Celebrities could struggle to contain a proliferation of unauthorized digital reproductions of themselves and the manipulation of their brand and reputation, experts said.”
UK Government: UK Intellectual Property Office joins WIPOS global brands database. “The Global Brands Database is an online resource made freely available by WIPO. It provides access to more than 50 million records, from some 71 national and international collections, in one place…. Initially, the UK will add around 3 million records, starting with existing registered trade marks. “
USPTO: USPTO delays the effective date for identity verification requirement for trademark filers. “USPTO strives to ensure the tools utilized to verify trademark filers are equitable, inclusive, and secure. Accordingly, as the USPTO evaluates and solicits feedback on our online digital identity verification option, we are announcing that we are postponing the April 9 effective date upon which identity verification was scheduled to become mandatory. A new effective date will be announced at the appropriate time with reasonable advance notice.”
Techdirt: Ukrainian Soldier Moves To Trademark ‘Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself” Because Of Course. “You may recall the name Roman Gribov. He was one of several soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea. When Russian warships began their part of the assualt of their sovereign neighbor, those warships communicated with Gribov, demanding that he and his fellow soldiers surrender. While staring down the barrel of the Russian Navy, Gribov offered up what is now an iconic response: ‘Russian warship… go fuck yourself!’ From there, the rebuttal took on meme status…. Which perhaps partially explains why Gribov, thorugh his family, is attempting to trademark the now iconic verbal middle finger.
Queensland University of Technology: Google’s search dominance a risk to consumers. “The GOOGLE trademark is still firmly in the grip of its owner Alphabet Inc. even though ‘to google’ is the ubiquitous vernacular for ‘to conduct an online search’, but a QUT data scientist says this familiarity could more negatively affect consumers than other trademarks in the same position.”
US Patent and Trademark Office: USPTO launches new Patent Public Search tool and webpage. “Based on the advanced Patents End-to-End (PE2E) search tool USPTO examiners use to identify prior art, this free, cloud-based platform combines the capabilities of four existing search tools scheduled to be retired in September 2022: Public-Examiner’s Automated Search Tool (PubEAST), Public-Web-based Examiner’s Search Tool (PubWEST), Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT), and Patent Application Full-Text and Image Database (AppFT).”
Techdirt: Hey The North Face! When You Said Sending Us A Bogus Trademark Threat Was A Mistake, We Believed You; So Why Did You Do It Again?. “Nine years ago, someone Photoshopped a fake patch parodying The North Face logo, with one that said ‘Hey Fuck Face.’ They posted it to Flickr. You guys lost your shit and filed a bogus takedown notice on this obvious parody that was not being used in commerce in anyway. But, much worse, nine years later, you had your ‘brand protection’ company send us — a news organization — an even more bogus takedown for our reporting on it.”
Bar & Bench: Use of trademark as keyword: Delhi High Court directs Google to probe into web traffic diversion. “The Delhi High Court recently directed Google to investigate into a complaint alleging that the use of a trademark and its variations as keywords on the search engine had resulted in the diversion of traffic from the owner’s website to that of the advertiser [M/s DRS Logistics & Anr v. Google India Pvt Ltd & Ors]. Justice V Kameswar Rao observed that when the use of a trademark as a keyword online constitutes infringement or passing off amounting to violations of rights of the trademark owner under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, Google ought to investigate such advertisements.”
World Trademark Review: Innovation at the German Patent and Trademark Office: spotlight on cutting-edge tools and services . “In exclusive insights, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) reveals the innovative non-core tools and services that it offers trademark users, including developments of its digital tools and collaboration with other national IP offices.”
World Trademark Review: Concern voiced as low-cost filer Trademark Terminal launches new platforms. “Recently-launched low-cost trademark filing offerings ‘Trademark Kingdom’ and ‘Trademark Nations’ appear to be linked to controversial platform Trademark Terminal, WTR can reveal. In response, an industry expert continues to call on the USPTO to do more to monitor low-cost filers.”
World Intellectual Property Review: EUIPO’s TMview database expands to Chinese market. “The People’s Republic of China has joined TMview, the EU Intellectual Property Office’s free trademark design search engine, adding 32 million marks owned by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) to the database.”
FedScoop: USPTO chief information officer most excited about new search algorithms . “New search algorithms for relevant prior art most excite the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s CIO right now. USPTO created the machine-learning algorithms to increase the speed at which patents are examined by importing relevant prior art — all information on its claim of originality — into pending applications sent to art units, said Jamie Holcombe.”
World Trademark Review: Scams and spam: USPTO users face epidemic of spurious communications. “Suspicious advertising and fraudulent invoice campaigns targeting US trademark owners again appear to be a growing problem, with one victim claiming to have lost more than $30,000 after allegedly being scammed on freelance platform UpWork.”
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