Affidavits as evidence
What happened: Carte Blanche Greetings Ltd. filed a lawsuit against several confectionery manufacturers in connection with the infringement of copyright on the Blue Nose Friends Characters series. In support of its copyright, the company submitted an affidavit. An affidavit is a written statement made under oath. In simple terms, it is an official document in which a person confirms that the information he or she has written is true.
What happened next: courts of all instances satisfied the claims, citing extensive case law recognizing affidavits as proper confirmation of copyright. However, the Supreme Court accepted the complaints for consideration, drawing attention to the defendants' arguments that the affidavit does not contain information about the author, but only states that all rights belong to the company.
Why it matters: The Supreme Court's findings may have a significant impact on the practice of accepting affidavits as evidence if they do not indicate a specific author. This may change the approach to proving copyright in such disputes, warns Denis Kudryavtsev, a Dispute Resolution Lawyer at PATENTUS.
The Supreme Court hearing on this dispute took place on August 1 (case No. A33-19084/2022).
Geography and its transition
What happened: In case No. SIP-555/2023, Talaya LLC challenged the decision of Rospatent on the issue of registering a designation with a geographic element for services. The dispute was around the trademark of the same name.
What happened next: The Presidium of the Intellectual Property Court made an important interpretation in its ruling that the acquired distinctiveness of the designation can be transferred from the previous owner of the property to the new owner, that is, it “accompanies” the property.
Why it matters: This position is very different from the standard one, where the courts establish the presence or absence of activity of a specific applicant during a certain period, comments Maksim Volkov, Head of Dispute Resolution Practice at PATENTUS. “The court draws parallels with the approach of a single source of origin of goods/services, which is actively applied by the Intellectual Property Court in cases of recognizing trademarks as well-known,” the expert notes.
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Image: Freepik
