Awapatent IP blog

On April 22-25, 2013, the yearly BIO International Convention was held in Chicago. This is the largest global event for the biotechnology industry, and it attracts research companies and service providers from all over the world. The BIO event provides an excellent arena for establishing new partnerships and collaborations, and the exhibition hall literally vibrates of knowledge, curiosity, internationalism, open-mindedness, and a tangible belief in the future.

Intellectual Property has become an increasingly important part of the biotech industry, and this is also reflected in the number of IP firms being represented at the BIO Convention. Several IP firms could be found among the exhibiting companies, and in addition to that, a huge number of IP professionals were included in the attendee list. So for us, the BIO means a great opportunity to expand our international network, and also to maintain established collaborations.

The BIO also offers a lot of social receptions, serving not only the chance to meet with a lot of strikingly nice people, but also to have a taste of exotic food, drinks, and cultures. One of this year’s favourites was undeniably the hula hula dancing to be experienced in the Hawaiian Pavilion.

Next year, the BIO is heading towards one of the world’s most influential biotech communities; San Diego, and we are already looking forward to meet with new and old friends in sunny California.

Inga-Lill Andersson, European Patent Attorney, Partner
Mikael Henriksson, European Patent Attorney

The amazingly talented Swedish artist Loreen succeeded in bringing the Eurovision Song Contest to Sweden and Malmö, the hometown of AWAPATENT. Malmö has now been all glammed up and is more than ready to welcome Europe.

For those of you who aren´t already die-hard fans of the Eurovision Song Contest, the ESC, here is some background information. The European Broadcasting Union, the EBU, was founded in 1950 by 23 broadcasting organizations and is today an alliance of public service media organizations with members in 56 countries in and outside of Europe. Marcel Bezençon, an employee of the EBU, popped the brilliant idea of the Eurovision Song Contest during a meeting in 1955 and the first Eurovision Song Contest was broadcasted in 1956. The rest is, as you say, history and the ESC has been an annual event since. On its 50^th birthday in 2005, Swedish Eurovision winner ABBA, with their song Waterloo, was voted Best ever ESC song by viewers.

The ESC is produced by the national public broadcaster of the winning country of the year before and even with this travelling circus the EBU still seem able to control the use of their IP-rights. The EBU seemingly works on keeping a close legal control over the competition, for example all broadcasting and other rights to the ESC shows are exclusively owned by the EBU and managed centrally by EBU on behalf of the participating broadcasters.

The trademark EUROVISION and the Eurovision logotype, among other trademarks, are owned by the EBU and the Eurovision Standard Terms and Conditions constitute that the EBU have absolute discretion over the development and exploitation of these trademarks. The Eurovision Song Contest Rules clearly state how the shows are allowed to be titled, any deviations is to be approved by the EBU. Also, the EBU is in close collaboration with the hosting national public broadcaster in organizing the contest and managing the brand.

But no need to worry that the ESC will get stuffy and out-dated, the EBU has initiated a Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group which are responsible for important tasks such as the development and future format of the competition and modernizing the brand. All you need to worry about is voting for your favorite on Saturday and keeping your fingers crossed!

Sources and further reading:

www.ebu.ch
www.eurovision.net
www.eurovision.tv 

Hanna Nilsson, Attorney at Law

Trademarks are, among other things, a guarantee for a certain level of quality. If the quality slips, the consumers may go for a different, competing product. But sometimes consumers seem to stick to their favorites.

An unusual lawsuit has been filed in the US, where consumers have filed a $5 million class action against Anheuser-Busch. The lawsuit involves 10 Anheuser-Busch products, one of them being Budweiser. The consumers accuse Anheuser-Busch of cheating them of alcohol content as stated on the labels of the bottles. Moreover, the lawsuit accuses the company of diluting their beer to boost their profit margins. Therefore, unspecified compensatory damages are sought for anyone in the United States who has bought Budweiser products in the last 5 years.

Strangely enough the lawsuit is not based on the consumers discovering a difference in taste, but on information from former employees of breweries owned by Anheuser-Busch. According to former employees the company allegedly, as a matter of common corporate practice, water down all of their products mentioned in the lawsuit.

One of the California plaintiffs says she bought a six-pack of Budweiser every week for the past four years, and says she feels cheated. One might wonder why she didn’t taste the difference in just one of those 1248 bottles of Budweiser she apparently bought over the years.

Anheuser-Busch calls these allegations completely false, and states that their beers are in complete compliance with labeling laws, and that they proudly adhere to the highest standards in their brewing process.

What is interesting in this case is that usually the dilution of a trademark is caused when a later similar mark leads to dispersion of the earlier mark by making it less distinctive or unique. Therefore the holder of a well-known trademark is allowed to oppose to later applications which would be detrimental to the distinctive character of his earlier mark. However, in this case the action based on dilution of the trademark is brought by consumers. This is rather unusual, and it will be interesting to follow the case.

Finally it will also be interesting to see whether the European consumers will act equivalent to the Americans, especially bearing in mind their relationship with beer. Even though class actions are rather rare within the EU, it is not as if the consumers lack the opportunity of filing such these days. Both the peculiar taste of Black Beauty in beef lasagna and now the watered down beer might also encourage European consumers to bring action against large companies.

Maria Dam Jensen, Associate