The two EU instruments that govern design law – the Community Design Regulation (CDR) of 2001 and the Design Directive of 1998 – are expertly annotated in this thorough article-by-article commentary. Written by distinguished practitioners from a range of European countries, the volume builds on the two editions of the design-related portions of the much-relied-upon Concise European Trade Mark and Design Law, with corresponding case law through the end of 2022. It is the best first-stop guide to practice in the field. The commentary provides detailed guidance, taking into account the case law of the EUIPO and its Boards of Appeal and of the General Court and the Court of Justice, on the practical application of such crucial building blocks of design law practice as the following: all issues of substantive design law, from definitions to novelty and individual character, ownership of design rights, limits of protection, to scope of protection and rights conferred; all proceedings before the EUIPO, from filing design applications to registration, actions for declaration of invalidity, and all provisions governing review of EUIPO decisions, by the EUIPO Boards of Appeal, by the EU’s General Court, and by the Court of Justice; and actions for the infringement of Community designs, with a focus on jurisdiction and applicable law. The book also contains a unique collection of EU and international legislation of relevance for design protection, found in no other reference book, including the Community Design Implementing and Fee Regulations, the Enforcement of IP Rights Directive, excerpts from the Rules of Procedure of the General Court, and relevant provisions from applicable international treaties, such as the TRIPS Agreement, the Paris Convention, the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement, and the Locarno Agreement. This concise book on designs is a handy desktop companion and single reference tool for daily use by every practitioner in the EU and elsewhere who practises design law. It will be welcomed by IP lawyers, in-house counsel, and government officials involved with design policy and procedure.

The sweeping changes brought about in 2017 to practice and procedures in European Union trade mark law have precipitated a new edition of this much relied-upon guide to the field. This is the first book to provide comprehensive guidance to the new EU Trade Mark Regulation, including full details on all aspects of substance and procedure, as well as to the new Trade Mark Directive. This new and significantly expanded edition, which builds on the two previous editions of the Concise European Trade Mark and Design Law, includes the full texts of the new Implementing and Delegated Acts – available in no other book – as well as a collection of other texts that are needed in daily practice, such as excerpts from the Rules of Procedure of the General Court, the Paris Convention, the Madrid Protocol and the Nice Agreement, the Nice Classification, the TRIPS Agreement and the Directive on Enforcement of IP Rights. Providing a complete commentary and a full set of the legal provisions that must be dealt with on a daily basis, obviating recourse to other sources, this new edition will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the law and practice of trade marks in the European Union.

Concise European Copyright Law aims to offer the reader a rapid understanding of all the provisions of copyright law in force in Europe that have been enacted at the European and international levels. This volume takes the form of an article-by-article commentary on the relevant European directives and international treaties in the field of copyright and neighbouring rights. It is intended to provide the reader with a short and straightforward explanation of the principles of law to be drawn from each provision. Editors and authors are prominent specialists (academics and practitioners) in the field of international and European copyright law. Concise European Copyright Law is part of 'Concise IP', a series of five volumes of commentary on European intellectual property legislation. The five volumes cover: Patents and related matters, Trademarks and designs, Copyrights and neighbouring rights, IT and a general volume including jurisdictional issues.

Since the second edition (2010) of this invaluable book – primary texts with expert article-by-article commentary on European data protection, e-commerce and information technology (IT) regulation, including analysis of case law – there has been a marked shift in regulatory focus. It can be said that, without knowing it, EU citizens have migrated from an information society to a digital single market to a data-driven economy. This thoroughly revised and updated third edition pinpoints, in a crystal-clear format, the meaning and application of currently relevant provisions enacted at the European and Member State levels, allowing practitioners and other interested parties to grasp the exact status of such laws, whether in force, under construction, controversial or proposed. Material has been rearranged and brought into line with the vibrant and constantly shifting elements in this field, with detailed attention to developments (most new to this edition) in such issues as the following: · cybersecurity; · privacy rights; · supply of digital content; · consumer rights in electronic commerce; · Geo-blocking; · open Internet; · contractual rules for online sale of (tangible) goods; · competition law in the IT sectors; · consumer online dispute resolution; · electronic signatures; and · reuse of public sector information. There is a completely new section on electronic identification, trust and security regulation, defining the trend towards an effective e-commerce framework protecting consumers and businesses accessing content or buying goods and services online. The contributors offer a very useful and practical review and analysis of the instruments, taking into account the fluidity and the transiency of the regulation of these very dynamic phenomena. This book will be quickly taken up by the myriad professionals – lawyers, officials and academics – engaged with data protection, e-commerce and IT on a daily basis.

In our technological society patent law plays a central role as an incentive for the development and marketing of new technologies in many fields of business. The number of patent applications continues to grow considerably every year. International and European conventions and other instruments have been implemented in order to simplify the application for and enforcement of patents and which also govern the scope of protection afforded by a patent in Europe. Others are being planned. This second edition of Concise European Patent Law aims to offer the reader a rapid understanding of all the provisions of patent law in force in Europe that have been enacted at the European and international levels. This volume takes the form of an article-by-article commentary on the European Patent Convention and the relevant European Community legislation and international treaties. It is intended to provide the reader with a short and straightforward explanation of the principles of law to be drawn from each provision, with references to the most important case law. Editors and authors are prominent specialists (both academics and practitioners) in the field of international and European patent law. Concise European Patent Law, second edition is one of a series of volumes of commentary on European Intellectual property legislation edited by Thomas Dreier, Charles Gielen and Richard Hacon, based on the respected German and Dutch series ‘Kurzkommentar and Tekst en Commentaar.’

Written by expert scholars and practitioners, this unique Research Handbook presents the state of the art in research on, and the practice of, international design law. Combining cutting-edge research with a practical approach, it examines key trends and covers key cases, regional and national laws, as well as concepts of international design protection. In particular, the U.S. framework is compared with the regime of the EU, and issues relating to the Hague Agreement are also covered.

This book contends that, with regard to the likelihood of confusion standard, European trademark law applies the average consumer incoherently and inconsistently. To test this proposal, it presents an analysis of the horizontal and vertical level of harmonization of the average consumer. The horizontal part focuses on similar fictions in areas of law adjacent to European trademark law (and in economics), and the average consumer in unfair competition law. The vertical part focuses on European trademark law, represented mainly by EU trademark law, and the trademark laws of the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The book provides readers with a better understanding of key aspects of European trademark law (the average consumer applied as part of the likelihood of confusion standard) and combines relevant law and practices with theoretical content and other related areas of law (and economics). Accordingly, it is an asset for policymakers and practitioners, as well as general readers with an interest in intellectual property law and theory.

The second edition of this popular textbook has been thoroughly revised, expanded and updated in order to reflect the recent extensive changes in European IP legislation. Providing an in-depth examination of the core areas of IP law, from copyright, patents and trademarks through to the protection of plant varieties and industrial design, it is perfectly pitched to guide the reader through the complexities of the European IP system.

This book employs scholarly analysis to ground practical tools for applying the EU Trade Mark law (EUTM) functionality refusal grounds to address business needs when registering trade marks consisting of product characteristics. The study comprehensively examines the absolute grounds for a refusal of registration of functional signs under EUTM. It interprets the functionality refusal grounds through objective tests, focusing on the pro-competition rationale of denying trade mark exclusivity on product features that are technically or aesthetically important for competitors’ ability to trade in alternative products. The work takes a comparative approach looking at the US trade dress functionality doctrine, and a law and economics perspective on the role of trade marks and brands in the marketplace. It explores how competition rules related to market definition and the substitutability of products, as well as marketing and design findings related to branding and aesthetics, could be integrated into the legal assessment of EUTM functionality. The volume will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Intellectual Property Law, Trade Mark and Design Law, EU Law, Comparative Law, and Branding.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the current legal landscape of global design law. It includes practice-based and analytical accounts of national design laws from several representative jurisdictions and delves into the practical and theoretical dimensions of some of the most urgent procedural issues facing this legal field.