India to update legal market rules to favour UK firms
The Bar Council of India said regulations governing the entry and practice conditions of foreign firms in the country will be updated to only allow UK firms and lawyers to enter the market for the time being.
A new set of rules, likely to be released later this month, will modify previous rules released in March last year, the council reportedly said during a meeting in London in late June.
The meeting was held alongside the Law Society and Bar Council of England and Wales.
To read the full article, click here.
Fewer hurdles: Bird & Bird veteran on life at a smaller firm
Last month, Bird & Bird ATMD in Singapore lost the last of its founding partners when Alban Kang retired.
He then joined Singapore-based firm Robinson on July 1 where he will work as an of counsel handling various IP disputes. Kang told Managing IP why he’s eyeing artificial intelligence and patent cases.
To read the full article, click here.
Other articles published on Managing IP this week include:
Five minutes with… Johan Åberg, Lindahl
SCOTUS to rule on ‘veil piercing’ trademark case
Patent stock-take: UPC monitoring and calming ‘nervous’ clients
Weekly take: UPC judicial appointments shine spotlight on D&I
How lawyers are managing trademark practices post-Abitron
Elsewhere in IP
AI filers
China-based inventors are filing the highest number of patents related to generative artificial intelligence, a report by WIPO has shown.
The WIPO Patent Landscape Report on Generative AI, published on Wednesday, July 2, revealed that the top five inventor locations were China, the US, South Korea, Japan, and India. Chinese companies Tencent, Ping An Insurance, Baidu, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with IBM, made up the top five applicants.
AI inventor
Sticking with AI, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice ruled in a decision published this week that an AI-generated invention is protectable but that a natural person should be named as the inventor. An AI generating an invention does not justify the rejection of an application, the court found. The decision is out of step with the position in the UK, which ruled that if an AI devises an invention, it is unprotectable.
Substantive ruling
Yesterday, July 4, the Unified Patent Court handed down only its second published decision on the merits.
Dexcom's infringement case against Abbott was dismissed after the Paris local division ruled that Abbott had successfully invalidated a Dexcom patent, which covered continuous glucose monitoring, for a lack of inventive step. Abbott was represented by Taylor Wessing while Bird & Bird and Hoffmann Eitle acted for Dexcom.
UPC nears 500
Meanwhile, the UPC is approaching 500 cases filed since it started operations on June 1 2023. According to the latest statistics, published on Monday, July 1, the court has received 411 cases across all divisions, up from 373 at the end of May. English and German (48% and 46% respectively) continue to be the most popular languages.
PRS under fire
A group of UK songwriters and composers have sued PRS For Music, their collective management organisation. The action, filed last month at the England and Wales High Court, centres around how PRS handles royalties. The group claims some policies are prejudicial to their interests and those of the wider PRS membership.
Google deal
InterDigital announced on Tuesday, July 2, that it had signed a new licensing agreement with Google. The agreement provides a licence to InterDigital’s cellular wireless, Wi-Fi, and HEVC video patented technologies and covers a range of devices including Pixel smartphones, Fitbit wearables, and other consumer electronics devices.
Benelux boss
Hugues Derème took up his new role as director general of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) on Monday, July 1. Derème had been deputy director general at BOIP since 2008. The appointment is for five years.
That's it for today, see you again next week.
