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« It looks like Morbier, as a black stripe like Morbier… But it’s not Morbier »   The European regulations on the protection of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) clearly state that third parties are not allowed to use protected denominations to refer to products that do not conform to the PDO’s specifications. However, as consumers, […]

With the issues in producing the vaccines against SARS-Cov2, requests for obtaining ex officio licences in the Public Health interest have been brought back to the foreground, with the aim of allowing everyone to produce the much-awaited vaccines. But these requests do not seem to worry about whether patents exist or not. It is interesting […]

A year after COVID-19 began spreading worldwide, several countries launched vaccination campaigns, with the end of this unprecedented health crisis looming in the horizon. Since its beginning, many pharmaceutical labs engaged in a race against time to be the first to come up with a vaccine. Just as for drugs, patents can protect vaccines. One […]

When we talk about the legal conditions regarding the patentability of an invention, novelty and inventive step are systematically brought up. However, there are other conditions. For example, the commercial exploitation of an invention can not go against public order and morals; this can only result from the sole fact that this exploitation is forbidden […]

Following the recent votes of the British parliament and of the European parliament, the United Kingdom left the European Union on the 31st of January 2020. As per the agreement voted between the EU and the United Kingdom, it was the start of a transition period which will end (unless it is extended) on the […]

  The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the INSEAD and the University of Cornell released their “Global Innovation Index 2020”. This study helps identifying evolutions in terms of innovation, through time and space.   They pinpoint that Western countries are still the most innovative, the leaders being Switzerland, Sweden and the USA. However, Asian countries […]

Comments on the Court of Justice of the European Union’s decision from April 2, 2020 (http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=97C35647F5F95E4E612B7E311A199033?text=&docid=224883&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=10513335 ) The Court of Justice confirmed that an online marketplace (such as Amazon, Le Bon Coin, eBay or Rue du Commerce, for example), which stores for a third party products counterfeiting a brand without being aware of the counterfeiting […]

Explanation of the Court of Cassation decision from the 20th of May 2020 (Civ. 1ère, 20th of May 2020, n° 19-12278) As the wine sector is deeply impacted by the consequences of the current worldwide health crisis and by the customs laws on wines exported to the USA, and as the overall alcohol consumption is […]

  Even a medication, which is a simple and perfectly characterised chemical molecule, can be protected by a series of patents filed one after the other, mimicking the development of the product. Here is an example of what could happen: A first patent protecting the molecule by its function through claims, as “Product for its […]

  The US Chamber is an American professional organisation, rallying over 3 million companies. Since 2012, it publishes a yearly ranking of countries based on the level of IP protectiveness they offer. This ranking is created using 52 markers, such as the legislative corpus, the implementation of rights, and awareness actions. The IP Index also […]