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Pinocchio, arguably one of the first cases of AI, and his Kat Figaro   Artificial Intelligence and copyright: best friends, enemies, or ... frenemies? Find out by attending this new joint IPKat/ BLACA event, which will take place at London’s ReedSmith offices in the evening of Thursday, 10 January 2019. The event, which will be led by Gaetano Dimita (Queen Mary University of London) and myself, will start with talks by: Mark Grierson (UAL Creative Computing Institute) on the technical potential of AI creativity, and David Price (Google) on the relationship between copyright and text and data mining. The panel will discuss issues such as: Whether and to what extent copyright law can accommodate AI-created works; Whether the EU approach to text and data mining will support the development of and investments in AI in Europe; Whether human authors will and/or should be replaced by machines; The preferable regulatory approach to be pursued in Europe and in the UK, also post-Brexit. If...

Kat li ck nking Can linking to protected content be considered an infringement of IP rights, at certain conditions? As far as copyright is concerned, this is a question that - further to the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European (CJEU) in cases like Svensson   [Katposts here ] and GS Media [Katposts here ] - has a response in the affirmative in the EU. But is it possible that envisaging liability for acts of linking might be a violation of the link provider's own human rights, notably freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR)? This is the issue that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had to consider in Magyar Jeti Zrt v Hungary .  Today, this court answered the question in the affirmative, at least in relation to linking to defamatory content. Let's see how the ECtHR reasoned, before turning to the potential implications for IP and, in particular, copyright. Background The applicant company, which operates ...

Revenge porn is sometimes mentioned in textbooks and commentary as the typical case of private production gone wrong, for which IP rights would prove useful not so much for incentivising the commercial dissemination of the ‘work’ but, rather, for its taking down. Such a scenario would certainly make for an interesting IP case, testing the application of copyright or performers’ rights, or at least serve as the basis of a cheeky examination question, no pun intended.  The Paris Tribunal recently decided   one   such case of ‘revenge porn’. At the risk of disappointing readers, there were no IP rights in sight in the dispute, the entire case having been (successfully) pled on the ground of the right to privacy. In a decision dated 20 November 2018 , the Paris Tribunal decided that a former mistress, who had leaked text messages and erotic photographs of the claimant to his wife and his sister, had breached his right to privacy guaranteed by Article 9 of the French Civil Co...

A few days ago news spread that well-known musical genre reggae, which originated in the beautiful island of Jamaica, would be protected by the UN. Katfriend Natalie Corthésy (The University of the West Indies at Mona) explains what happened in detail and reflects on the implications thereof. Here’s what Natalie writes: “BIG UP!” This popular Jamaican expression used to congratulate someone for achieving success, is an appropriate toast to reggae fans all over the world. At long last, reggae, a musical genre which originated in Jamaica, has been added to the United Nation’s list of International Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. The protected list was created in 2008 and came about as a result of the 2003 UN convention for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Its aims are to ensure respect for communities, groups and individuals involved in the listed activity, to raise awareness and encourage appreciation of those activities nationally and internationally. Led by J...

IPKat has been busy web-crawling over the past week and is delighted to bring its readers a roundup of the most exciting IP posts. Patents Northwestern University, Pritzker Law School, has released three databases on technology standards and standard-setting organisations. The databases are available free of charge for all academic researchers. IP Finance reports: Northwestern Releases Technology Standards and Standard Setting Organizations Databases and Congratulations to Dr. Roya Ghafele! The traditional rule of assignor estoppel prevents prior owners of a patent from later challenging the validity of the patent. In Arista Networks case , the Federal Circuit was faced with the question of whether assignor estoppel applies to prevent an assignor from later challenging a patent in an inter partes review proceeding. Resting its analysis on the statutory language, the Court ruled that assignor estoppel finds no basis in the AIA. PatentlyO review is available here: Inventors Can Chall...

Kat gap As the debate around the draft Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market continues to unfold [Katposts here ] , The IPKat is happy to publish the following contribution by  Ansgar Ohly  and  Matthias Leistner  (both LMU München) concerning their proposal – which will be hosted in full on the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice   (JIPLP) – concerning Article 13, that is the value gap (or transfer of value) proposal. Here’s what Ansgar and Matthias write: After lengthy discussion in the Council and in the European Parliament, the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market ( 2016/0280(COD) ) has now entered the trilogue. The most recent meeting took place on 26 November. Two more meetings are planned until the end of the year, and the ambitious goal is to reach a result by January 2019. Much of the discussion in Parliament as well as in the media has been about the proposed Art. 13, which concerns the liability of...

If someone takes part in a photo shoot for the promotion of a clothing line, they consented to his or her image being used online as part of the designers’ advertising campaign – surely ?  Similarly, if you blur somebody’s face in a film so much so that he or she is no longer recognizable, you have dispensed with your obligation to respect their right to their image  –   surely ?  Well, don’t be so sure  –  the Paris Tribunal would reject both assumptions, according to recent judgments on image rights.  In two decisions, dated 16 November 2018 and 21 November 2018 , respectively, the Paris Tribunal (‘Tribunal de Grande Instance’) clarified the application of image rights in the context of commercial advertising, opting for an interpretation of the law favourable to models and performers. The contribution of the Tribunal’s recent jurisprudence declared that: Taking part in a photo shoot for advertising purposes does not imply consenting to all forms of...