In May 2023 we reported on the IP infringement decision of the Californian District Court, in relation to the dispute between the creators of the Bored Aped Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection, Yuga Labs, and the 'artists' Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen.  In that decision, the Court found against the defendants and, on 25 October 2023, the order for damages was handed down.  This blog post looks at the recent damages decisions and its implications.  (For a refresher on NFTs, you can consult our series here.) As background, the defendants created an NFT collection called the Ryder Ripps BAYC (RR BAYC) collection, which essentially copied the iconic ape images from the Yuga Labs' BAYC collection.  The defendants' alleged that this was for the purposes of commentary on Yuga Labs and the BAYC NFTs.  The Court found against the defendants on the claims of false designation of origin and cyber-squatting (in relation to certain domain names used by the defendants).  It also dismissed the defendants' First Amendment / Rogers defence because no artistic expression was at issue, finding that "As Yuga has pointed out, and the Court agrees, Defendants’ sale of RR/BAYC NFTs is no more artistic than the sale of a counterfeit handbag". Read more

In its first four months of operation, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has accepted over 250 actions and made over 45 orders. These cases span a variety of sectors, including life sciences, consumer goods, and mechanical engineering, and involve parties from the US, India, UK, Switzerland, and UPC participating EU states. Here we take a look at some of the most significant developments and you can register for our briefing for more detailed analysis and coverage. Read more

Uses of machine learning and AI are expanding rapidly, and IP rights play a critical role in both regulating the use of AI and protecting the rights of inventors and creators. In this series, we will explore the key challenges governments worldwide are currently grappling with in order to provide the right level of protection … Read more

Dr Thaler’s latest attempt to obtain IP protection for “creations” of his AI system has failed, with a US Court rejecting copyright protection for an AI-generated artwork. Read more

The European Patent Office has released a “Unitary Patent dashboard” offering “a timely snapshot of applicants’ eagerness to opt for the Unitary Patent”. Live figures show that as of today, 1 August 2023, there have been 5665 requests for unitary effect, with the most popular technologies being Infrastructure & Mechanics (20.8%), Health (19.2%) and Materials … Read more

Dr Craig Wright claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin and is asserting three Bitcoin-related copyright claims against a number of entities. In the appeal from the decision of Meade J that there was no serious issue to be tried on the merits of the claim in relation to copyright in the Bitcoin File Format (required in order for permission to be granted to service defendants outside the jurisdiction), Lord Justice Arnold and the Court of Appeal unanimously held that there was a serious issue to be tried, allowing the appeal and in the process elucidating the requirement for fixation in copyright claims. Read more

Six weeks into the new Unified Patent Court and unitary patent, both elements of the new system seem to have taken off, with unitary patents proving popular and the first cases being filed (17 infringement and 3 revocation actions to date). Whilst opt-outs are high and teething problems remain with the case search systems and some practical procedural issues, a certain UPC momentum is developing, with the first preliminary injunctions and orders also being granted. Read more