Brand & New

Over the last decades, the domain of trademark law and the scope of trademark protection have grown exponentially, and a wide variety of nontraditional marks, including color, sound, smell, and shape marks, can now be registered in many jurisdictions. However, this continuous extension of trademark protection has led to debate and controversies about the impact of  non-traditional marks on fundame...

Even though Africa seems like a late bloomer when it comes to the adoption of cryptocurrencies, this continent is widely converted to mobile money, representing over 50 percent of the world’s mobile money services. For instance, Google search trend shows that the region showing the highest interest in the term "bitcoin" is Africa, and particularly Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, even th...

Canada legalized the use of cannabis for recreational purposes on October 17, 2018. The country became the first major world economy to legalize it, starting a national experiment representing major cultural, social, public policy, and legal challenges for this nation. The comparison between Canada and its southern neighbor, the United States, is often made—to date, the use, sale, and possession o...

There is not a week that goes by without a privacy-related topic hitting the news—from data breaches affecting millions of people to social network marketing strategies, targeted advertising, or geolocation tracking technologies. Since the adoption of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, privacy issues have become critical for all companies and have reshaped how data is handle...

Intellectual Property law as we know it has been shaped by technology evolutions over the last century, today’s tech innovations seems to have a higher disruptive effect on traditional IP legal concepts. Think AI, algorithms, data science, connected objects, or even life science new techs. Is our IP legal system outdated? How should we, as lawyers, address today’s legal challenges relating to mach...

Europe has been experiencing political turmoil over the last few years, from the Catalonia referendum on independence to Brexit (the abbreviation for “British exit” referring to the United Kingdom’s decision in a June 2016 referendum to leave the European Union).  No surprise, Brexit is expected to have consequences on the intellectual property (IP) of UK companies, from many standpoints: legal, e...

What can’t you find on Amazon? As the most global retail store ever, Amazon has become a unique platform where customers can literally find any product they wish and sellers have concomitantly found a marketplace broader than anything they used to operate on. Unsurprisingly, Amazon's commercial success has led to an increased risk of counterfeit products being sold on its platform. How does t...

Intellectual property remains one of the most valuable assets in the Digital Age.  In Africa, few countries, Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, are credited for having IP standards in place. International businesses are already present, operating in areas such as telecommunications and banking. But what are the main opportunities and challenges faced by these companies, whichincreasingly rely on th...

Is there a European way to understand and manage intellectual property (IP)?  Since the 18th century, Europe has always been at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness, as explained by Benoît Battistelli, who held various roles in French government departments and embassies before serving as  Director General of the French National Institute for Industrial Property. and then President  of...

Andrei Iancu has been serving since February 2018 as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) s, based in Alexandria, Virginia. An engineer and intellectual property (IP) attorney, he previously was the managing partner of the law firm Irell & Manella, focused on IP litigation.  The USPTO is the largest IP o...

Domain names play a special role in the intellectual property ecosystem. Following the recent ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) meeting that took place in Kobe, Japan, this episode goes back to the basics and reveals what’s hot in this area and the opportunities created by new technologies.  Both law firm and brand owner perspectives are presented in this discussion with...

Sandra Mau, founder and CEO of TrademarkVision, an image recognition for brand protection startup based in Pittsburgh (USA) and Brisbane (Australia) that was recently acquired by CompuMark (Clarivate Analytics), shares her vision about how machine learning and image recognition technology is transforming the intellectual property (IP) ecosystem at a time when 40 percent of trademark filings contai...

With artificial intelligence (AI) all over the news, Ayuko Nemoto, Partner at Sonderhoff & Einsel Law and Patent Office, based in Tokyo, Japan, takes a deep dive into this topic to help us understand the status of AI-generated works, how public and private sectors deal with AI and its legal aspects, and the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in Japan—one of the world le...

With nearly 150 million subscribers worldwide, Netflix, Inc. has revolutionized the media and entertainment world.  Our guest, Jeremy Kaufman, Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property at Netflix, Inc., in Los Angeles, California, shares with us the company’s local and global IP challenges, as well as his views about the role of  IP counsel today. His unique insight, completed by his past experiences...

Mladen Vukmir and Julia Talke are the leaders of the INTA Brands & Innovation Committee. Mladen, who leads the IP law firm Vukmir & Associates in Croatia, and Julia, global counsel for trademarks and branding at Lumileds in Germany, tell us more about their own vision of innovation as IP experts, and about this INTA Committee, one of the pillars of the Association Strategic Plan, while det...

Maximiliano Santa Cruz, an IP and technology consultant based in Santiago, Chile who until recently was the General Director of the National Institute of Industrial Property of Chile, discusses with us the challenges and opportunities raised by innovation from the perspective of an IP office. He also shares his vision of the potential evolution of the mission of IP offices in relation to trademark...

Jeanne Fromer, a Professor of Law with a specialty in IP at New York University School of Law and Co-Director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy in New York, raises many thought-provoking questions about trademark law, technology, and society as a whole in this compelling interview. She gives us keys to better understand how artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies c...

Stephane Lemarchand is a French award-winning IP & IT lawyer who co-leads, as the Joint Head of the law firm DLA Piper, more than 500 lawyers around the world. Stephane shares, in this new episode of Brand & New, his experience about the legal and IP ecosystem and the way they interact with tech, but also his views on the reasons why lawyers shall adapt and embrace this new cycle... sooner...

Tish Berard, the 2018 President of the International Trademark Association (INTA), introduces the Association’s new podcast series, Brand & New, in a discussion with host Audrey Dauvet. Successful businesses innovate on a daily basis to meet the changing needs of today’s consumers. How do brand professionals and those interested in brands become effective stakeholders in this dialogue? Learn h...