Never Too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week!

[Simone Lorenzi]

Never Too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week!

 Simone Lorenzi Wednesday, April 08, 2026 - #NeverTooLate, copyright, event report, IP, Simone Lorenzi

Combing through legal archives and chocolate eggs is learned, but exhausting.

If you, much like the Kats, spent the past few days taking a well-deserved Easter nap to sleep off the chocolate, you will be pleased to know it was a relatively quiet week on the blog too. Here is a bite-sized roundup to gently ease you back into the IP world.

International IP & Trade Law

Katfriend Seun Lari-Williams examined the outcomes of the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, observing that the voluntary Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA) is increasingly shifting from a temporary stopgap to a permanent, two-tiered reality for resolving international TRIPS and IP disputes.

Katfriend Daniel J. Gervais reflected on a quieter but highly consequential outcome from the same WTO conference: the expiration of the TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints (NVSCs) moratorium. He warned that this lapse removes a quarter-century of settled expectations and leaves a genuinely novel, unpredictable legal terrain for the global IP system.

Copyright

Katfriend Norbert P. Flechsig scrutinised Advocate General Szpunar’s Opinion in VG WORT (C-840/24), arguing forcefully that there is no basis in EU law for collecting societies to divert revenue from private copying or public lending to fund cultural activities that benefit non-rightholders at their own discretion.

IP News and Events

Marcel Pemsel rounded up the latest news and opportunities for the Easter break, highlighting upcoming seminars on IP transactions, posthumous rights, and AI, alongside the EUIPO's new Digital Services Act collaboration to fight online counterfeiting and the 30th anniversary of the EU trade mark system.

Image credit: Gemini AI

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