Welcome to the latest edition of IP@OC, Osborne Clarke's international IP newsletter. In this edition, we look at the changes taking place in IP across the EU including: the strengthening of rights for news publishers and increased liability for commercial content-sharing platforms (such as YouTube) as part of the Digital...

Only seven years ago, after decades of discussion within the European Union on the adequacy and feasibility of a uniform patent system (the purpose of which would be to overcome a fragmentation of the patent market resulting from divergences existing at the national level), almost all Member States – apart...

Challenges in relation to standard-essential patents Standard-essential patents are patents that form part of a technical standard. If the use of the standard is mandatory for access to or a competitive offer on a product market, the SEP may give a dominant position to the owner. This leads to a...

Background On 14 February 2022, the EU Commission (Directorate-General GROW) opened an impact assessment consultation and a public consultation on a new framework for standard-essential patents (more on the initiative here . Standard-essential patents (SEPs) are patents that protect technologies that are indispensable for some industries and have therefore become...

After much planning and discussion, the Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) are due to launch in Europe in mid-2023. For the first time, the new UP will introduce a single patent right covering all EU Member States that have ratified the UPC Agreement and the UPC...

DoorDash is a US technology company that connects people with the best of their neighbourhoods across the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Germany. By building last-mile logistics infrastructure for local commerce, its mission is to grow and empower local economies. Flink was founded in 2020 in Germany to bring consumers...

On 16 February 2017, the European Parliament debated the report and recommendation put forward by the Legal Affairs Committee on the legal, ethical and social issues raised by the steady incursion of robots into increasing areas of human activity (see our previous article here ). Disappointingly for those hoping for...

Under Spanish law, there is a wide range of potential remedies in case of an illegitimate or unlawful use of IP assets, such as drawings, designs, distinctive signs, logos, look & feel , software, or patentable hardware. IP assets may be simultaneously subject to various legal regimes that can be...