Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Intellectual property

S.I.A.E.’s public comment on collective management rules review

Right holders should be permitted to grant ASCAP and BMI rights other than those of public performances. The right holders will be allowed to confer the administration of their repertoires to the same Collecting Society for both performing and mechanical rights, and consequently the Collecting Society will be able to provide users with a “one-stop shop”, thus facilitating their job.

Comments closed

Russian publishing house Eksmo failed to shut down Yandex only because it can find Rutracker.org

Russian association on protection of copyright (AZAPI) on behalf of Russian publishing house Eksmo sued Yandex and requested it to cease showing pirate links in its search results. “Google deletes pirate links without court order. We follow voluntary approach.” – said Ryabiko, the chief of AZAPI. If Google is so good, why Yandex should not be?

Comments closed

UK IPO guidance on changes to Section 72 of the CDPA 1988 concerning of free public showing or playing of broadcast

Copyright protects literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works as well as films, sound recordings and broadcasts. If you want to copy or otherwise use a copyright work then you usually have to get permission from the copyright owner.

Comments closed

UK public consultations on changes to CDPA 1988 and the Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations 1995

This technical consultation covers the proposed changes to Schedule 1 CDPA to ensure equal treatment of copyright works made prior to 1 June 1957; and the amendment and repeal of some of the 1995 Regulations to ensure compliance with Article 2 of Directive 2001/29/EC 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (InfoSoc Directive).

Comments closed

USA DOJ ASCAP and BMI ruling – imperfections of fractional licencing

A comparison between the licensing of public performance rights and the licensing of synchronization rights further illustrates the problem faced by music users who rely on PRO licenses. Producers of movies or television programming have traditionally entered separate synchronization licenses with each owner of a fractional interest in a song the producer seeks to include in his or her television show or movie, generally on a song-by-song basis.

Comments closed

Blossom pie design is functional and therefore ineligible for trademark protection

Chudleigh’s is an apple farm and bakery based in Ontario, Canada, which sells baked goods to consumers and commercial entities. In the mid-1990s, Scott Chudleigh, an owner of the business, began developing a “single-serve, fully baked . . . apple pie” to sell to restaurants, to which it already distributed multi-serving apple pies. Mr. Chudleigh and his wife tested several possible shapes for the single-serve pies, settling on a round shape with six folds of pastry encircling the filling. Chudleigh’s registered a trademark for the six-fold pastry design, known as the Blossom Design, and the mark became incontestable in 2005.

Comments closed

USA DOJ ASCAP and BMI ruling – fractional licencing and public interest

If PROs offer fractional licenses, a music user, before performing any multi-owner work in a PRO’s repertory, would need a license to the fractional interests held by each of the work’s co-owners. A full-work license from a PRO, on the other hand, would provide infringement protection to a music user seeking to perform any work in the repertory of the PRO.

Comments closed