Passing Off and Unfair Competition: after the seminar

Last Thursday's JIPLP-GRUR Int seminar on Passing Off and Unfair Competition, kindly hosted in the London office of international law firm Baker & McKenzie LLP, was a most instructive affair as well as a thoroughly enjoyable one.  Baker & McKenzie partner and JIPLP contributor Ben Allgrove laid out the structure of modern passing off law, following which Gert Würtenberger (partner, Würtenberger Kunze, Munich, JIPLP editorial board member and GRUR member) spoke on the development of the German law on unfair competition and its current scope.

After a break for a little reflection, panellists Birgit Clark and Professors Phillip Johnson and Christopher Wadlow, chaired by newly-appointed Intellectual Property Enterprise Judge Richard Hacon QC, examined the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two doctrines and then opened discussion to the participants -- among whom were some very knowledgeable and experienced IP practitioners and theoreticians.

You can access Ben Allgrove's PowerPoint presentation here or download it here
Gert Würtenberger's PowerPoint presentation can be accessed here or downloaded here

CPD: this event was accredited for 2 hours and 15 minutes.  For the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the authorisation code is 009/BAMC.

Passing off and Unfair Competition seminar: an update

This year's British event
is quite full up ...!

Next week's JIPLP-GRUR Int seminar on Passing off and unfair competition (on which see our previous post here) is still oversubscribed. One of the reasons why this is so is that, when I posted a request that people who found themselves unable to attend should let me know, so that we could reallocate their place to someone else on the reserve list, we received a small number of cancellations -- but a larger number of emails from people asking if they too could be placed on the reserve list! We appreciate the enthusiasm of our readers, but it would really be a good idea if we sealed the reserve list so as not to raise further the hopes of last-minute applicants for registration.

Richard Hacon

Regarding the same event, there's a change of cast in the composition of the discussion panel.  We regret that Mr Justice Arnold will not after all be able to join us and chair the panel.  However, we are pleased to inform you that an admirable replacement has been found in the shape of Richard Hacon QC, who was recently appointed as the first member of the judiciary in England and Wales to be termed an Intellectual Property Enterprise Judge, presiding over the  Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, the IPEC. Richard is no stranger to issues relating to passing off or unfair competition. Cases in which he acted before his ascent to the judiciary include such classics as Case C-143/00 Boehringer Ingelheim KG and others v Swingward Ltd and Dowelhurst Ltd (here), Joined Cases C-414 to 416/99 Zino Davidoff SA v A & G Imports Ltd and Levi Strauss & Co. and Others v Tesco Stores Ltd and Others (here) and Samsung Electronics (UK) v Apple Inc (here).

In the next day or so, we will be bringing news of the second of this year's cooperation seminars between JIPLP and GRUR Int, which will be held in Munich on 10 March.

Passing off and Unfair Competition: now we're 65

Regular readers will already know that "Passing off and Unfair Competition" is the theme of the third event held by the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice with its German partners at GRUR Int.   This event, which is kindly hosted in the London office of Baker & McKenzie LLP, takes place on Thursday 23 January 2014 and the programme looks like this:

3.00 pm Registration

3.30 pm Welcome

3.40 pm Chairman’s introduction (Professor Jeremy Phillips)

3.45 pm Ben Allgrove (partner, Baker & McKenzie, London, and JIPLP contributor) looks at the operation of the UK's passing off law

4.15 pm Gert Würtenberger (partner, Würtenberger Kunze, Munich, and JIPLP editorial board member) gives us his perspective on Germany's unfair competition law

4.45 pm Break

5.00 pm Panel discussion, featuring Mr Justice Arnold (whose judgments in the Och-Ziff and Vodkat cases have taken British passing off law to the next level), plus JIPLP editorial board members Dr Birgit Clark and Professors Phillip Johnson and Christopher Wadlow

5.30 pm Questions from the floor

6.00 to 7.00 pm Reception

There is no charge for admission.  If you'd like to attend this event, for which CPD points will be available, please email JIPLP editor Jeremy Phillips on jjip@btinternet.com with the subject line "January event".

We now have 65 people registered, but there's still room for more. Do join us!

If, having registered for this event, you subsequently find that you cannot attend, can you please email to let us know, so that your place can be allocated to someone else whose name is on the reserve list.

Passing off and unfair competition: 50 up and still rising

Reservations for the 23 January 2014 event at which experts from both civil law and common law jurisdictions discuss the relative merits and (if any!) demerits of passing off and unfair competition continue to rise. We now have over 50 registrations, drawn from several countries, for this event -- which is free to attend.

Details of the programme and how to register for it can be found on the jiplp website here. There are no further formalities, though registrants who, having signed up for the event, find that they cannot after all attend are requested to let us know as soon as possible so that we can invite people whose names are held on the expected waiting list.

Passing off and Unfair Competition: a JIPLP-GRUR Int event

"Passing off and Unfair Competition" is the theme of the third event held by the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice with its German partners at GRUR Int.   This event, which is kindly hosted in the London office of Baker & McKenzie LLP, takes place on Thursday 23 January 2014 and the programme looks like this:

3.00 pm Registration

3.30 pm Welcome

3.40 pm Chairman’s introduction (Professor Jeremy Phillips)

3.45 pm Ben Allgrove (partner, Baker & McKenzie, London, and JIPLP contributor) looks at the operation of the UK's passing off law

4.15 pm Gert Würtenberger (partner, Würtenberger Kunze, Munich, and JIPLP editorial board member) gives us his perspective on Germany's unfair competition law

4.45 pm Break

5.00 pm Panel discussion, featuring Mr Justice Arnold (whose judgments in the Och-Ziff and Vodkat cases have taken British passing off law to the next level), plus JIPLP editorial board members Dr Birgit Clark and Professors Phillip Johnson and Christopher Wadlow

5.30 pm Questions from the floor

6.00 to 7.00 pm Reception

There is no charge for admission.  If you'd like to attend this event, for which CPD points will be available, please email JIPLP editor Jeremy Phillips on jjip@btinternet.com with the subject line "January event".

If, having registered for this event, you subsequently find that you cannot attend, can you please email to let us know, so that your place can be allocated to someone else whose name is on the reserve list.

Forthcoming event: save the date!

The third joint event conducted by JIPLP and its German friends at GRUR Int will be held in London, on Thursday 23 January 2014.  The topic under discussion will be a comparison of the functional utility of the common law of passing off with that of the German statutory delict of unfair competition.

Venue, speakers, panellists and other details will be announced soon.  Meanwhile, JIPLP can confirm that the event will run from 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm, followed by a pleasant reception.  CPD points will be available too.