As the result of a recent High Court decision the band Reef have failed to secure the registration of their name as a trade mark. The band applied for the registration of “Reef” as a trade mark in classes of goods including t-shirts and the usual range of band merchandise. The registration was opposed by … Read more
Mr A.R. Mani recently scored a victory over the fashion house Armani under the dispute resolution procedure set up by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The panel dismissed Armani’s complaint that Mr Mani had cybersquatted the address Armani.com. Under the terms of the ICANN Policy (para 4a), Armani had to prove … Read more
The European Union and the United States announced last week that they had reached a “procedural agreement” to agree the means by which the US will compensate European performing right organisations for the US’s failure to comply with a World Trade Organisation ruling. In 1996, the Irish Music Rights Organisation asked the Irish Government and … Read more
Random House, one of the world’s largest English language book publishers, has failed in an attempt to prevent an electronic publisher from distributing e-books by authors who had previously granted exclusive rights to Random House. The dispute arose after the electronic publisher Rosetta Books contracted with several authors to publish certain of their works as … Read more
Anna Ford’s application for leave to review a decision of the Press Complaints Commission has been refused. She had made a complaint to the PCC about photographs taken of herself and a friend without their knowledge on a beach in Majorca. She was in a bikini, and the photographs showed her applying sun-tan lotion to … Read more
