Brand & New

Internet of Things, wearables, smart houses, connected cars … We now hear about these technologies and their promising potential in our lives on a daily basis. However, most of us do not necessarily grasp the broad ecosystem they rely on, and the variety of issues they deal with from a legal perspective. Luke Dembosky and Jim Pastore, both partners at the multi-awarded law firm Debevoise & Pli...

While the art sector did not intuitively seem like a good match for blockchain, overnight, at some point in 2021, everyone started talking about record-setting sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) like they had always existed. Just like that, this new application of blockchain made all lawyers’ heads spin fast again. Despite the recent frenzy around them, NFTs actually gained popularity in the nich...

Born 1997 onward, Gen Z is  the world’s largest group of consumers, wielding hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars in spending power.  But whereas lots have been said about the previous generation, millennials, and their impact on marketing and branding strategies, especially online, Gen Z’ s preferences on brands are now under scrutiny, including in a major study launched by the INTA.  On track to...

Over the last few years, an increasing number of organizations across all industries have been reviewing their corporate cultures, management processes, and hiring practices to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Like other industries, law firms have been under a microscope for their DEI practices. From the client’s point of view, a law firm with diverse teams bring a rich set of persp...

The 2020 Global Gender Gap Report, published by the World Economic Forum, shows that gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years.  In the intellectual property (IP) industry, even though genders are similarly creative and innovative, it is not a secret to say that the field is predominantly male-oriented.  Women are, for instance, underrepresented in patenting; one study has even projected t...

Strengthened by the civil unrest in the United States and across the globe that ignited almost two years ago, companies have been watching and reviewing their brand message but also their corporate cultures and hiring practices to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). DEI has become actual priorities for executive teams, HR leaders, boards of directors, marketing teams, and legal departm...

With a steady GDP growth over 5% last year, Kenya is one of the leading economic forces not only in East Africa but on the entire continent. In this context, it’s no surprise that intellectual property issues are at the forefront of most national institutional projects. From legislative amendments to update the main laws in light of new challenges raised by new techs, to punchy enforcement initiat...

Business-wise in a complex challenged global economy Africa is more on the move than ever. The World Economic Forum pointed out last year that six of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa and the continent’s average annual GDP growth is projected to remain at a robust average of six percent until 2023.  How does this unstoppable growth translate from an intellectual property...

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries worldwide have been implementing more or less stringent social distancing and lockdown measures, and the operations of intellectual property (IP) offices have been impacted just as any other businesses or institutions. Many IP offices around the world have implemented emergency policies to limit their services, and some even have shut down for th...

With the implementation of the Phase One deal between the United States and China on import tariffs, as well as the ongoing global pandemic, the new Silk Roads, and even current supply chain issues, businesses in Asia have been navigating unprecedented circumstances when it comes to product development, marketing, distribution, and sales.  But Asia also continues to inspire global leaders to step...

A frightening new threat cascades around the world, upending familiar routines, disrupting the global economy, and endangering lives. While all multi-layered impacts of the Covid19 pandemic have yet to unfold, we already know that we are experiencing a major health crisis with significant global economic and social fallouts. Our guest today, Peter McAleese, is a partner with the intellectual prope...

Historically, the digital world emerged as a threat for the luxury retail industry – mostly by giving customers access to counterfeits. Also, the way business is often done online seemed to contradict the mere identity of luxury brands and the exclusive shopping experience they intend to offer. In other words, the digital world was perceived as a minefield for luxury, and many brands have been hes...

RECORDED BEFORE THE CURRENT SANITARY CRISIS Major brands regularly experience crises and make the news for alleged fundamental rights violations or similar breaches with high social stakes. Think racial discrimination, privacy and data breaches, sexual harassment at the workplace, or even life-threatening health hazards such as food poisoning.  This episode sheds light on brand crisis management,...

Eran Kahana is an intellectual property (IP) and cybersecurity attorney at Maslon LLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota, a research fellow at Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, California, and a director at InfraGard (Minnesota chapter), a FBI and private partnership. He shares his experience and views about cybersecurity, the threats related to data, and potential solutions in a complex ecosystem where IP is...

While counterfeit goods are available almost everywhere online and offline, manufacturing and exportation is highly monopolized by a handful of countries. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security reported seizures of counterfeit goods at U.S. borders have increased tenfold over the past two decades, with nearly 90 percent of seized products in 2018 arriving from mainland China or...

While the digital age has unleashed huge positive and beneficial opportunities, there are also more controversial, debatable, or even unlawful or harmful innovations. With hidden data breaches, dark web criminality, chatbots trolls, or deep fake impersonations, high technology provides anyone – literally anyone – with many easily accessible effective tools to serve any malicious agenda they may ha...

Global sales of counterfeits are growing at a furious 15 percent each year and have reached over US $1.82 trillion in 2020. This represents 3.3 percent of global trade (according to the OECD8), with e-commerce making up more than a quarter of that, according to the Global Brand Counterfeiting Report. The rise of digital channels facilitating the sale and purchase of consumer goods has indeed fuele...

Today’s episode is dedicated to a generation of people born in the late 90s to early 2000, post-millenials, called Generation Z.  This cohort of millions of kids, teens, and young adults, exposed to social media and new techs in their upbringing, shall redefine the relationships with brands in the future.  That’s why INTA researched this group, and released a multi-country study, Gen Z Insights: b...

As the world begins to adjust to the short and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies are seeking ways to preserve cash on their balance sheets while simultaneously raising funds to ensure a continuation of operations and a growth of their business and customer base. In particular, the sudden drop in revenues created acute liquidity shortages about a year ago, threatening the su...

What does being innovative mean for legal professionals, in relation to work quality, client relationships, responsiveness, proactiveness, cost efficiency? Firoz Dattu, the Chair and Founder of AdvanceLaw, based in Washington D.C. and present in several countries, shares his views on the legal market dynamics and the changes–including the impact of automation—in the relationships between in-house...

Considering small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from an intellectual property (IP)perspective, it is all the more critical that SMEs don’t play by the same rules as larger businesses. Indeed, SMEs and larger firms in the European Union perform very differently with regard to their ownership and use of IP rights (IPR).  The European Patent Office (EPO), based in Munich, Germany, recently rep...

Y-generation entrepreneur Regina Polanco, founder and CEO of Pyrates smart fabrics in Madrid, Spain, shares her experience in following her passion for textiles after legal studies to develop this sustainable clothing company, and how she put a special focus on the IP protection of its signature smart fabric technology from the very beginning of the business journey.   Every two weeks, on Tuesday,...

With computer-generated artwork, streaming platforms licensing models, artificial intelligence tools in need of an increasing amount of input data to deliver better predictions, copyright law and protection seem as challenging as trademark law these days, if not more. These challenges are unfolding in a period marked by acute political, social, and legal uncertainty, an ongoing pandemic, a new U.S...

What does diversity bring to the intellectual property industry and practice? What does it mean, in practice, to champion minority empowerment in the IP world?  In this third episode of our Women's Empowerment in IP series, Myrtha Hurtado Rivas, the Global Head of Trademarks and Domain Names at Novartis International AG, Basel, Switzerland, talks about gender equality in the legal profession...

It is well-known that intellectual property (IP) has become the life blood of most markets and companies over the last decades, with the generalization of the knowledge economy, the all- encompassing digital transformation, and the increased dependence of businesses on intangible assets. With that, IP has taken a critical place in the way businesses make decisions to develop a new product, to laun...