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| A Kat caught letting its legal reading list pile up in the beautiful June sunshine... |
Copyright
Georgia Jenkins explored how the paradigm shift toward running open-weight AI models locally on personal devices is rewriting the rules of User-Generated Content and disrupting traditional copyright enforcement, using Tintin-style model fine-tuning on HuggingFace as a case study.
Patents
Rose Hughes reported on the confirmation of a new referral to the EBA designated as G 1/26 (arising from T 0873/24), which asks whether description definitions can save a claim from an added matter attack under Article 123(2) EPC following the landmark G 1/24 ruling.
Claire Gregg analysed the data from the Australian IP Report 2026, pointing out stable overall patent volumes alongside an increase in domestic resident filings, notable growth in transport and health-related technologies, and a temporary decline in computer-implemented inventions.
Claire Gregg examined the fallout from the Full Federal Court of Australia's decision in The NOCO Company v Brown and Watson International, which held that the "best method" requirement is assessed at the time of filing a divisional application, leaving patentees to navigate complex strategic adjustments.
Trademarks
Söğüt Atilla-Aydın commented on the EUIPO First Board of Appeal’s decision rejecting the registration of the sign “MICKEY IS FREE!” for clothing items, noting that while the 1928 Steamboat Willie copyright has expired, Disney's underlying trademark rights continue to prevent signs that create a likelihood of confusion for the average consumer.
Book Reviews
Katfriend Niharika Salar reviewed the book "Criminal Intellectual Property Enforcement in Asia: Sources, Significance and Side-Effects" (edited by Kung-Chung Liu and Tianxiang He), evaluating the volume's criminological insights and its analysis of the systemic gaps between statutory IP penalties and real-world enforcement across Asian legal systems.
IP News and Events
Image credit: Gemini AI