Category Archives: Intellectual property

Pandabuy: police raid ‘20 football stadiums’ worth of alleged fake goods warehouses

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Arrests as Chinese authorities working with UK police and international trademark agencies seize millions of parcels bound for customers worldwide

Chinese authorities have targeted a major online sales platform accused of supplying counterfeit goods, raiding warehouses holding millions of packages destined for overseas buyers.

Earlier this month police raided the Hangzhou office and several warehouses of Pandabuy after reported legal action by 16 brands over copyright infringement. More than 200 public security branch officers, 50 private sector investigators and local police were involved, according to reports.

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Collection of unreleased Marvin Gaye songs found in Belgium

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Questions surround ownership of demo tapes reportedly left by soul artist as a thank-you to his Ostend hosts

A collection of cassette tapes containing a host of unreleased Marvin Gaye songs has been found in the Belgian city of Ostend.

It has potentially lain hidden in Belgium for over 40 years, according to the BBC.

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Chinese dancing frog goes viral doing the worm

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‘Frog seller’ trend sparks debate on intellectual property amid concerns over copyright infringement

An anthropomorphised frog has joined celebrity live-streamers and social media commentators among China’s ranks of influencers, as a trend that began with street sellers in Chinese cities takes on a new life online – and raised questions over who, if anyone, owns the intellectual property rights to a dancing amphibian.

Alternatively known as a “frog seller” or “frog influencer”, the meme involves a person in a frog suit with a blue neckerchief selling frog-themed products such as balloons and toys.

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Adidas asks US to bar Black Lives Matter from using three stripes in trademark

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The sportswear company claims the BLM Global Network Foundation’s yellow-stripe design would be confused with its three-stripe logo

Sneaker giant Adidas AG has asked the US trademark office to reject an application for a Black Lives Matter trademark featuring three parallel stripes, arguing it could mislead the public.

Adidas told the office in a Monday filing that Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc’s yellow-stripe design would create confusion with its own famous three-stripe mark. It sought to block the group’s application to use the design on goods that the German sportswear maker also sells, such as shirts, hats and bags.

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Sardinian winemaker denies his two oxen logo is Red Bull copy

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Mattia Muggittu says he feels like David v Goliath as energy drink firm disputes branding on his first bottles

A small wine producer in Sardinia accused by the maker of the energy drink Red Bull of copying its logo has said he feels as if he is in a David and Goliath battle against the Austrian company.

Mattia Muggittu, the owner of Muggittu di Mamoiada, had just produced his first bottle of wine, which features two traditional Sardinian oxen tied together on its label, when he received a legal notice from Red Bull claiming the image bore similarities to the one on its energy drink depicting two bulls charging at each other inside a golden sun.

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Demand for Japanese manga bucks Australia’s downward piracy trend

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With songs and movies readily available on streaming services, illegal downloads have moved to less-available media

A growing demand for pirated Japanese manga in Australia has coincided with a decline in the piracy of TV shows, movies and music over the last five years.

Last month, the attorney general’s department released a review of Australia’s copyright enforcement, which included an analysis of trends in online copyright infringement.

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50 Chinese students leave UK in three years after spy chiefs’ warning

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MI5 chief says Chinese communist party targeting intellectual property across west

Fifty Chinese students have left the UK in the past three years after Britain tightened its procedures to prevent the theft of sensitive academic research, the head of MI5 said in a speech about the espionage threat posed by Beijing.

Ken McCallum, the director general of the spy agency, also said that MI5 had “more than doubled” its effort against Chinese activity over the same timeframe, as part of an unprecedented joint warning with his counterpart at the FBI.

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Mariah Carey being sued for $20m over All I Want for Christmas Is You

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Songwriter Andy Stone claims he co-wrote song with the same name and did not give permission for it to be used

Mariah Carey is being sued for $20m (£16m) for alleged copyright infringement over her festive megahit All I Want for Christmas Is You – nearly three decades after it was released.

Since it came out in 1994, the song, which features on her album Merry Christmas, has become a global classic and a firm favourite in the pop Christmas canon.

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Eric Clapton to waive legal costs against woman who attempted to sell single bootlegged CD

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The artist’s management have issued a clarifying statement after the singer attracted criticism over the David v Goliath win

Eric Clapton has waived the legal costs that a German court ordered a 55-year-old woman to pay, over a single CD containing a bootleg copy of a 1980s concert she attempted to sell.

The musician’s management has also issued a clarifying statement in response to widespread social media criticism over Clapton’s decision to take legal action in the first place, saying Clapton was not involved in the specifics of the case and she “is not the type of person Eric Clapton, or his record company, wish to target”.

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Will everyone in the world have access to a Covid vaccine? – video explainer

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The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine is showing promise but it is premature to say the end of the pandemic is nigh. Several rich countries have signed a 'frenzy of deals' that could prevent many poor nations from getting access to immunisation until at least 2024. Also, many drug firms are potentially refusing to waive patents and other intellectual property rights in order to secure exclusive rights to any cure.

Michael Safi, the Guardian's international correspondent, explains why 'vaccine nationalisation' could scupper global efforts to kill the virus and examines what is being done to tackle the issue

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Katy Perry wins appeal in $2.8m plagiarism case

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Judge rules against jury verdict in case over song Dark Horse, which had previously been found in favour of rapper Marcus Gray

Katy Perry has won an appeal in a copyright case involving damages of $2.8m (£2.3m).

In July 2014, Perry was accused of plagiarising the song Joyful Noise by a Christian rapper named Marcus Gray (AKA Flame), for her US No 1 hit Dark Horse, which was the second biggest-selling song worldwide that year. The songwriters sued, with Perry and her team defending themselves by saying they had never heard Joyful Noise.

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‘Why can’t we use a bear?’ Spanish startup shocked by Haribo legal threat

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Founders of firm making alcoholic sweets left puzzled by trademark infringement claim

Small, sweet bears with the capacity to inflict a very sore head have triggered an intellectual property dispute involving a multinational confectioner, a trio of enterprising Spanish students and a shot or two of alcohol.

A couple of years ago, three friends studying in the Basque country experienced an epiphany: what if they combined their childhood love of sweets with their adult taste for alcohol? And what if the delivery system were a small, chewy bear?

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Harry and Meghan could face fight to protect ‘Sussex Royal’ brand

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Pair may have to file objection after EU trademark application is apparently made from Italy

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex face having to potentially make an objection to protect their would-be brand “Sussex Royal” after an application was lodged with EU authorities to trademark a range of goods including beer and jewellery.

In what may be the latest attempt to either squat on or protect the couple’s brand, it was lodged on Thursday by an applicant who appears to be based in Italy and filed it in German, with English listed as a second language. Database searches suggest it was made in the name of Ui Phoenix Kerbl, possibly after the Guardian reported on Thursday that the Sussexes had yet to register their brand outside of the UK.

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Mystery of Rolling Stones tracks posted briefly on YouTube

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Vintage recordings may have been published in attempt to extend copyright protection

A mysterious YouTube account that posted, then hid, a collection of 75 rare and unpublished Rolling Stones recordings may have been a canny attempt to avoid EU copyright laws and keep the tracks out of the public domain on the 50th anniversary of their creation.

Shortly before midnight on 31 December, the YouTube account 69RSTRAX posted a collection of recordings including studio out-takes and live performances to its public page on the video-sharing site, with no commentary or explanation. Hours later, on 1 January, again with no warning, the account made all the videos private.

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Radiohead release hours of hacked MiniDiscs to benefit Extinction Rebellion

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Thom Yorke describes hours of recordings from OK Computer sessions as ‘not v interesting’, while climate activists thank the band for ‘unprecedented support’

Radiohead have released a vast collection of unreleased tracks made during the sessions for 1997 album OK Computer, after a MiniDisc archive owned by frontman Thom Yorke was hacked last week by an unnamed person, who reportedly held the recordings to ransom for $150,000.

The band have now made the 18 MiniDisc recordings, most of them around an hour in length, available on Bandcamp for £18. Proceeds will go to climate activists Extinction Rebellion.

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McDonald’s loses Big Mac trademark after legal battle with Irish chain

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Supermac strips US food giant of trademark across Europe after landmark EU ruling

Pat McDonagh earned the nickname Supermac as an Irish teenager after a barnstorming performance in a Gaelic football match in the late 1960s.

The centre half-back guided his school, Carmelite college of Moate, County Westmeath, to victory over St Gerald’s, a more fancied team.

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