Tout arrive en France, especially for folks following recent intellectual property news. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) released a key judgment in January in a case that pitted copyright against freedom of expression.
Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, the Founder and Director of the IP Intensive Program, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. 2012 was an action-packed year in the world of intellectual property law. There were flurries of reports, decisions, and new legislation that confronted many core principles of […]
On Friday November 1, 2012, the American University, Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) hosted the Inaugural Peter Jaszi Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property, featuring Christopher Sprigman, Professor at the University of Virginia Law School and co-author of the book The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation.
In Abraham Moon & Sons Ltd v. Thornber and others, the Patents County Court (“PCC”) in London held that a firm called “Art of the Loom” and its partners (“defendants”) had infringed Abraham Moon’s (“claimant”) copyright in “Skye Sage”. This decision is noteworthy because it serves as an example of how copyright law relates to the […]
France is known for its fashion. Perhaps more importantly within the fashion world, France is known as being one of the last remaining champions of the petites mains: highly skilled tailors and seamstresses that are the “behind the scenes” technicians to Europe’s most notorious haute couture fashion houses. In a surprising David v. Goliath decision, […]
The fashion law community has been carefully watching Christian Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent battle over red-soled shoes. At first, the twitter-verse heralded this decision as a definitive win for Christian Louboutin. However, on closer examination this appears to be more of a win-win (or a lose-lose) situation. Ultimately, co-existence is the name of the […]
In a recent victory for French design house Christian Louboutin, a New York appeals court has ruled that Louboutin can trademark its shoes’ iconic red sole since it is a defining feature of an authentic Louboutin product.
Zut alors! Christian Louboutin is not having a good year with the judicial system and must be seeing red! I have previously covered Christian Louboutin’s dispute with Yves Saint Laurent in the US, with respect to YSL’s use of the red-soled shoes. Christian Louboutin suffered a blow when he was denied a preliminary injunction […]
On February 28th 2012, the Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit against Urban Outfitters Inc. and its subsidiaries in the District Court of New Mexico for ‘trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition and commercial practice laws violation and for the violation of The Indian Arts and Crafts Act’. The basis of the Navajo Nation's complaint was […]
Courtney Doagoo is a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. In November 2010, UK Prime Minister David Cameron commissioned Ian Hargreaves, Professor and Chair of Digital Economy at Cardiff University to carry out an independent Report regarding the current state of intellectual property law in the UK and to specifically assess […]