NIPC Law

Tesla Model S Author Paul Sableman Licence Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert Yesterday I attended the eCommerce Show North  at EventCity Manchester.  One of the exhibitors was Tesla Inc.  Two of the company's cars were on display and I took a peek inside one of them.  The car had a steering wheel and many of the instruments that would be expected on any other car but I could find only one pedal and there was a large screen displaying the locations of the nearest charging points. At first, I was surprised to find a luxury car manufacturer among the developers, fintech,  marketing and social media consultancies, private equity and business angel investors but then I realized that logistics are essential to electronic commerce. Goods purchased over the internet have to be delivered. The optimum means of delivery are autonomous electric vehicles. Those are the things that Tesla develops and manufactu...

Netlog  is a social network based in Gand in Belgium. According to the "About Netlog" page on its website it is available to 95 million users throughout Europe in 40 languages. It claims to be "page view market leader" (whatever that may mean) in  Belgium, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Romania and Turkey and number 2 in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal. I am ashamed to say until I read the decision of the Court of Justice of European Union in C-360/10,  Belgische Vereniging van Auteurs, Componisten en Uitgevers CVBA (SABAM) v Netlog NV  [2012] EUECJ C-360/10 I had never heard of this important continental institution but, hey, I'm South British so what do I know. Apparently "On Netlog, you can create your own web page with a blog, pictures, videos, events, playlists and much more to share with your friends. It is thus the ultimate tool to connect and communicate with your social network. Massive Media NV has developed a unique localization ...

Over the last few months, there has been a spate of claims by luxury goods manufacturers against eBay. In RG 07/11365 L'Oréal SA c eBay France SA in which the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris dismissed trade mark infringement claims by L'Oréal against eBay for providing an on-line market for counterfeit goods on 13 May 2009. A similar case came before Mr Justice Anold in L'Oreal SA and others v eBay International AG and others [2009] EWHC 1094 on 22 May 2009. The questions that arose in both cases were summarized by the judge as follows: "Are eBay Europe liable for trade mark infringements committed by their users? Do eBay Europe themselves commit infringements by using trade marks in relation to infringing goods? " In this case the well known cosmetics, skincare and toiletries multinational, L'Oréal, sued a number of alleged counterfeiters and parallel importers for trade mark infringement. These were defendants 4 to 10. They also sued various eBay comp...