Summary
This edition of Weekly IP Warm-UP explores significant global and Indian intellectual property developments. It highlights Spain’s new copyright law affecting Google News, the UK’s private copying regulation, and Flickr’s response to Creative Commons image controversies. The post examines a legal question regarding LinkedIn connections as trade secrets and reports on a favourable Delhi High Court order for Indian singers’ royalties. Additional topics include patent litigation involving AstraZeneca, Louisiana State University’s technology transfer funding, and RPX’s acquisition of Rockstar patents. The analysis concludes with commentary on evolving copyright laws, including parody exceptions.
Google News Closes Operations in Spain
A Spanish copyright law required Google, Yahoo, and other news aggregators to pay a licensing fee to all news publishers for using their stories or snippets in Google News. In response, Google closed its Google News operations in Spain. The regulation permitted publishers to opt in to Google’s index and thereby avoid the mandatory licensing fee, but Google elected to cease operations rather than comply.
UK Private Copying Regulation Meets Music Industry Resistance
In the United Kingdom, a new copyright regulation came into force on October 1, 2015, permitting music to be legally copied to a private device for personal use. The introduction of the regulation was met with strong resistance from the UK music industry.
Flickr Discontinues Sale of Creative Commons Prints
Flickr, the Yahoo-owned image-hosting website, issued an apology for using prints of images licensed under Creative Commons (CC) in its recently launched Wall Art service. Flickr stated it would continue to accept orders from users for prints of personal images and those shared by licensed artists, but would not use CC-licensed images in the commercial service without appropriate authorisation.
LinkedIn Connections and Trade Secrets
David Oakes worked in a sales position with a company called Cellular Accessories under an employment agreement that contained a clause safeguarding the company’s trade secrets. He had accumulated more than 900 contacts on LinkedIn. Upon leaving Cellular Accessories, Oakes retained his LinkedIn account and started a new company called Trinitas using the contacts in that account. Cellular Accessories sued him for misappropriation. The court held that the customer list constituted a trade secret but left the question of whether LinkedIn connections could independently constitute a trade secret for jury determination.
Delhi High Court Passes Favourable Order for Singers’ Royalties
The Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA) obtained a favourable order from the Delhi High Court against Night Fever Club & Lounge, a Delhi-based establishment that had been playing songs without paying performance royalties to singers. ISRA filed the suit before the Delhi High Court on December 18, 2014.
AstraZeneca to Retain Onglyza Patent Protection
Aurobindo Pharma filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the USFDA seeking market approval for Saxagliptin hydrochloride tablets prior to the expiry of AstraZeneca’s US patent for Onglyza. The court held that the submission of the ANDA prior to patent expiry constituted a technical act of infringement and that, on the available information, one or more claims of the unexpired patent would be infringed by the product described in the ANDA.
Louisiana State University Doubles Investment in Technology Transfer
Louisiana State University (LSU) established the LSU LIFT (Leveraging Innovation for Technology Transfer) Fund to transfer innovation from the laboratory into the market. The Fund offers bi-annual funding to LSU faculty members. The university also committed to directing 5% of its future IP licensing income to the LSU LIFT Fund on an ongoing basis.
RPX Acquires Rockstar Consortium Patents for US$900M
RPX Corp entered into an agreement to acquire approximately 4,000 patents owned by Rockstar, a consortium led by Apple Inc. and other technology firms, for US$900M. RPX does not use its patents to file lawsuits; instead, it provides its approximately 200 member clients with access to its intellectual property portfolio.
UK Parody Law Amendment
Alongside the private copying regulation, the United Kingdom introduced changes to its parody law, permitting the creation of parody works subject to judicial assessment of whether the use constitutes a genuine parody.
Disclaimer
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney before acting on any matter discussed here.