INTA is the worlds largest trade mark organisation.
Approximately 10,000 individuals from law firms and trade mark owners around the globe attend its annual meeting. Every few weeks INTA chooses to publish a profile of just two of the many thousands of individuals who participate in the association’s activities. This month they chose Waterfront partner Matthew Harris.
Matthew’s profile can be found here.
Matthew has been involved in the various activities of INTA for over 14 years. When on the association’s internet committee, he drafted INTA’s comments on the .eu domain name regime. From 2004 to 2010 he was the UK contributor to The Trademark Reporter International Review, and from 2007 was appointed one of its editors. In recent years he has served on the European Amicus Sub-Committee, being appointed its chairman from 2009 to 2011. Work in that latter role including drafting submissions to Russia’s highest trade mark court and appearing on behalf of the association before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in the Nokia case.
When asked what he thought about his profile, Matthew responded:
“I am honoured to have been chosen. However, I am not sure that ‘beer swilling history nerd’ is quite the image I am trying to foster.”
A recent EU trade mark application for the word mark, PUT PUTIN IN, has been refused by the European Union Intellectual Property Office on the grounds of being contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality. While a fairly straightforward decision, this is a timely reminder…
Late yesterday UK time, it was reported that a lawyer for Twitter had sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg complaining about Meta’s new Threads app. Twitter claimed that it “has serious concerns that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, wilful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.
Copyright litigation proceedings brought in London’s Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) against John Lewis, and its cartoon dragon ‘Excitable Edgar’, have been dismissed.