Never Too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week!
Simone Lorenzi
Never Too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week!
With late July delivering peak summer warmth and vacation season in full swing, it can be tempting to trade your legal briefs for a beach lounge or a shady spot in the garden. If you stepped away from your desk and let the steady stream of IP developments pass you by, don't worry—we have you covered.
AI & Copyright Policy
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| Presiding from the garden patio. All motions for treats are temporarily stayed. |
Georgia Jenkins examined Meta’s controversial launch and swift shelving of its "Muse Image" and "reuse + AI" default setting on Instagram, which enabled AI image generation based on user-generated data and public profile photos via Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Georgia highlighted critical concerns surrounding default consent, digital replicas, and the impact of agentic AI ecosystems on human creativity, while noting how collective action from unions like SAG-AFTRA forced Meta to pause the feature after just three days.
Georgia Jenkins also reflected on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s "AI in Australia’s Interests" speech, which rejected a text and data mining (TDM) exception and framed unauthorized AI training on creative works as "theft." Georgia highlighted the sharp conflict between Australia's push to host resource-heavy AI data centers and its pledge to protect creators, arguing that AI training on human works is better understood as a form of collective societal appropriation than individual property theft.
Patents & Plant Variety Rights
Claire Gregg highlighted a concerning seven-fold increase in Australian patent opposition proceedings where Delegates of the Commissioner invoke section 60(3) of the Patents Act 1990 to raise their own grounds of invalidity not raised by the parties. Claire noted that raising new grounds at or after hearings imposes tight deadlines and extra costs, arguing that such intervention undermines inter partes procedural fairness and should be exercised sparingly—or handled via re-examination instead.
Katfriends Beatriz Lima and Sara Nazaré examined the procedural framework governing UPC appeals under Article 73 UPCA and Rule 220 RoP, questioning whether a party that wins the operative outcome of a case can still appeal or cross-appeal adverse legal findings or rejected defensive pleas within the court's reasoning. They analyzed the limitations of Rule 236.2 RoP, contrasting an outcome-focused approach with issue-specific appellate review, and highlighted the strategic implications for front-loaded pleading before the UPC.
Jocelyn Bosse reported on the newly introduced "Fair Seeds for Farmers Act" in the US House of Representatives, which proposes a ban on utility patents for plant varieties and germplasm, restricting agricultural IP to plant patents and Plant Variety Protection (PVP) certificates. Jocelyn outlined how the bill seeks to safeguard breeder and seed-saving exemptions while rendering unenforceable restrictive licensing contracts that override research and propagation rights, comparing the US proposal to European frameworks and ongoing antitrust interventions in cases like Corteva v Inari.
Jocelyn Bosse also surveyed major statutory amendments expanding Plant Variety Rights (PVR) protection in Japan and New Zealand. Jocelyn detailed Japan's record-breaking extension of PVR duration to 35 years (40 years for woody plants), new pre-grant export injunctions, and a dedicated PVR support organization, alongside New Zealand's proposed 5-year extension to align with EU standards and restore provisional protection.
Copyright & Digital Law
Katfriend Thomas Hood analysed the High Court's summary judgment in Hasbro Consumer Products Licensing Ltd v SConnect Medica LLC ([2026] EWHC 1546 (Ch)), the Peppa Pig sound-recording copyright dispute. Thomas outlined how Richard Smith J applied the Brownlie presumption on foreign law, accepted spectrogram evidence to establish indirect copying of audio clips under the Pelham standard, and held that significant UK YouTube viewership coupled with available territory-blocking tools constituted targeting for communication to the public.
Eleonora Rosati analysed the CJEU’s landmark judgment in Anne Frank (C-788/24), concerning the online publication of works protected in some Member States but in the public domain in others. Eleonora highlighted three major takeaways: that effective technological geoblocking is essential to limit online consent (with direct relevance to DSM Directive Art. 4(3) rights reservations), that mere accessibility rather than targeting determines communication to the public, and that while VPN providers are not directly liable under Art. 3 InfoSoc Directive, secondary liability remains an unharmonized matter for national law.
Trade Secrets
Katfriend Aleksandra Kuc-Makulska discussed the proposed draft reform of Poland’s Industrial Property Law, focusing on the introduction of an official trade secret deposit administered by the Polish Patent Office (similar to Benelux's i-DEPOT). Aleksandra outlined how the deposit provides evidence of information existence at a specific point in time while raising key unresolved questions regarding confidentiality, registry access, and post-expiration handling, alongside other proposed changes like utility model reform and protective letters.
IP News and Events
Image credit: Gemini AI