Copyright

Katfriend Adanna Onah, in a guest post, analyzed the Ninth Circuit's decision in Woodland v Hill,
which reiterated that copyright in photographs only protects the unique 'selection' and 'arrangement' of elements, not the bare idea of a pose, offering insights into originality in the social media age and challenges in proving copying.

Designs

Alessandro Cerri reported on a recent decision by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales which, by referring to the Sky v SkyKick judgment, held that a party was precluded from seeking a declaration of invalidity for a UK Design Right after an unsuccessful attempt concerning its pre-Brexit EU equivalent, applying principles of res judicata and abuse of process.

Patents

Rose Hughes reported on the UK High Court's decision in Alexion v Samsung Bioepis, highlighting how sequence errors in patent applications can be fatal for both enforcement and validity, particularly in biological inventions like the blockbuster antibody Soliris.

Plant Variety Rights

Jocelyn Bosse reported on a record-breaking award of damages in China for infringement of corn variety rights, totaling over RMB 53 million, and highlights the recent entry into force of China's revised Regulations on the Protection of New Plant Varieties which align more closely with UPOV 1991.

Trade marks

Marcel Pemsel examined two General Court decisions (T-1088/23 and T-1089/23) that clarify the high bar for proving abuse of revocation proceedings based on non-use and the discretion of the Board of Appeal to consider belated evidence.

Book Review

Anastasiia Kyrylenko reviewed "European and UK Trade Mark Law" by David T. Keeling, noting its comprehensive coverage of general principles and absolute grounds of refusal in an approachable style, and discussing the author's argument that the CJEU has underperformed in trademark law.

Source: https://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2025/06/never-too-late-if-you-missed-ipkat-last.html