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The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in criminal law is an important aspect of the legal system that enforces rights holders and prevents the illegal use of intellectual products. The modern world, in which information and innovation play a key role in the development of society, requires effective IPR protection mechanisms at both the national and international levels. This paper examines various aspects of the criminal law protection of IPR, starting with basic concepts and ending with international agreements regulating this area. The concept of IPR covers a wide range of objects that are the results of creative and innovative activities: copyrights to literary, musical, artistic works, rights to inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications and other intellectual products that have economic and social value. Criminal law protection of IPR in Ukraine is regulated by a number of legislative acts, in particular the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine «On Copyright and Related Rights», the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Rights to Inventions and Utility Models», etc. These regulations establish liability for infringement of intellectual property rights, including illegal use of IPR objects, piracy, counterfeiting of trademarks, which can cause significant material damage and affect the reputation of rights holders. An important place in the study is the analysis of the composition of crimes in the field of IPR. IPR crimes can vary in their nature and complexity. This can be both a direct violation of copyright, and more complex cases related to the counterfeiting of goods or the use of trademarks without the permission of the owner. Analysis of the criminal composition helps to understand which actions are subject to criminal liability and which sanctions can be applied to violators. Subjects of crimes in the field of IPR include both natural and legal persons who may be responsible for infringement of intellectual property rights. Particular attention is paid to the issues of identification and prosecution of violators, as well as problems arising in the process of law enforcement. The international aspect of IPR protection is an integral part of the modern legal system, as globalization leads to an increase in the international exchange of intellectual products and information. The work examines key international agreements, in particular the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which establishes international standards for the protection of IPR. It is also important to analyze the role of international organizations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in coordinating the efforts of various countries in the fight against IPR violations. The work also raises issues of problems and prospects for the development of criminal protection of IPR. Challenges associated with the development of digital technologies create new risks for rights holders, in particular in the area of digital piracy and copyright infringement on the Internet. In the conditions of globalization, the harmonization of national legislation with international standards is necessary, as well as the development of international cooperation mechanisms for the effective protection of IPR. In general, the study highlights current problems and provides recommendations for improving the system of criminal protection of IPR in Ukraine. Effective protection of intellectual property rights is a key factor in ensuring innovative economic development and increasing the country's competitiveness in the international arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The far right is often seen to thrive in times of crisis. The unfolding of the Great Recession, the migration crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic provide an unprecedented opportunity to delve into far-right collective actors’ relationship with ‘crisis’. With our study, we are interested to explore whether far-right mobilisation in the protest arena is indeed linked to short-term periods of crisis or part of a broader, longer-term process of societal transformation from the ground up. We deploy a new dataset on far-right protest events – part of the Far-Right Protest Observatory (FARPO) – covering 10 European countries and the period 2008–2021 (N = 4,440) to elicit and characterise nativist mobilisation at the non-institutional level. Although far-right collective actors have reacted to periods of crisis, the rate, size, and interactions surrounding their protest mobilisation have been steadily on the rise, their repertoire of action has been overwhelmingly conventional, and their claim-making dominated by trademark issues like immigration and multiculturalism. Instead of simply adapting to crisis, we contend that the far right is prompting a broader process of transformation and increasing its penetration of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trademark element recogniton is a crucial task in applications such as trademark brand evaluation and trademark infringement identification. In recent years, although modeling technology has made significant progress, small objects, similar objects, and objects with high conditional probability continue to be unable to be solved, due to the limitations of convolutional kernels. Based on semantic-aware region search and label dependency modeling, we propose a multi-input recognition framework for trademark elements (Mi-Tr) based on Transformer, which learns the complex dependencies between visual features and labels them through feature extraction using different convolutional networks and Transformer encoding. The proposed approach includes two visual feature-embedding modules that use modified VGG16 and ResNet101 as feature extractors to obtain feature information of trademark images in different dimensions. Simultaneously, the category labels are input into the transformer by embedding, using the order invariance of the transformer, thus, it is better to learn all types of dependencies between all features and labels. Additionally, the number of layers of the transformer and number of heads of the multiheaded attention were modified to find parameters that better match image features and label information. The experimental results on two datasets, METU and Logotypes of Different Companies, demonstrate that the classifier developed by our model performs significantly better in the multi-input classification of trademark image elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Finnish Supreme Court's decision on whether refilling and relabeling carbon dioxide cylinders misled consumers about an economic link between the original and new sellers. Topics include the assessment of consumer perception regarding economic connections, the impact of labeling practices on brand integrity, and the legal considerations of trade mark exhaustion and infringement.

This article discusses the availability of punitive damages in China for trade mark infringement. While the UK has been reluctant to emphasize the 'punitive' nature of such damages, China has legitimized punitive damages by codifying them in 2021. The Supreme People's Court Interpretation on the Application of Punitive Damages in the Trial of Civil Infringement Cases of Intellectual Property Rights (2021) has sought to clarify the requirements that are applicable to punitive damages, in particular with regard to the required 'intention' and the 'serious circumstances' in which such damages may be awarded. Although punitive damages still appear to be awarded rarely by Chinese courts, their availability and the increasing clarity around the requirements for their award should lead to the progressive strengthening of the trade mark owners' right in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of trademark text recognition is a fundamental component of scene text recognition (STR), which currently faces a number of challenges, including the presence of unordered, irregular or curved text, as well as text that is distorted or rotated. In applications such as trademark infringement detection and analysis of brand effects, the diversification of artistic fonts in trademarks and the complexity of the product surfaces where the trademarks are located pose major challenges for relevant research. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a novel recognition framework named SwinCornerTR, which aims to enhance the accuracy and robustness of trademark text recognition. Firstly, a novel feature-extraction network based on SwinTransformer with EFPN (enhanced feature pyramid network) is proposed. By incorporating SwinTransformer as the backbone, efficient capture of global information in trademark images is achieved through the self-attention mechanism and enhanced feature pyramid module, providing more accurate and expressive feature representations for subsequent text extraction. Then, during the encoding stage, a novel feature point-retrieval algorithm based on corner detection is designed. The OTSU-based fast corner detector is presented to generate a corner map, achieving efficient and accurate corner detection. Furthermore, in the encoding phase, a feature point-retrieval mechanism based on corner detection is introduced to achieve priority selection of key-point regions, eliminating character-to-character lines and suppressing background interference. Finally, we conducted extensive experiments on two open-access benchmark datasets, SVT and CUTE80, as well as a self-constructed trademark dataset, to assess the effectiveness of the proposed method. Our results showed that the proposed method achieved accuracies of 92.9%, 92.3% and 84.8%, respectively, on these datasets. These results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method in the analysis of trademark data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products, which highlighted the complexities of trademark law in relation to First Amendment rights, especially regarding the use of parody in artistic expressions. Topics include the implications of the Jack Daniel's decision on trademark and speech, the limitations of current trademark law in protecting expressive uses, and the necessity for a broader fair use defense in trademark dispute.

The article analyzes the Supreme Court's decision in Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products, which established that trademark use, particularly when indicating the source of goods, does not receive special speech protections under the Lanham Act, regardless of expressive elements. Topics include the bright-line rule for trademark use, the distinction between trademark and non-trademark use, and the implications of the ruling for future trademark law and expressive works.

The article summarizes the concluding remarks of the second panel at the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Symposium, highlighting the discussions surrounding trademark law and parody implications following recent court decisions. Topics include the potential increase in cease-and-desist letters from trademark owners, the complexities of determining trademark use, and the overall impact on the future of trademark rights and parody protections.

The article details the discussions from the second panel of the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Symposium, focusing on the Bad Spaniels case and its implications for trademark law, particularly concerning the intersection trademark protections. Topics include the concept of likelihood of confusion in trademark infringement, the application of the Rogers test for expressive works, and changes in trademark owners' rights regarding parody and artistic expression.

This article provides excerpts from legal judgments in Brazil regarding trademark disputes. The courts emphasize the need for distinctiveness and originality in trademarks and consider factors such as visual elements and the nature of the products or services. The judgments also highlight the importance of considering the perspective of the average consumer and the rights of third parties. The courts uphold the original judgments and dismiss the appeals. [Extracted from the article]

There is a myth that says that the best standard German nationwide is spoken in Hanover. This article deals with the transmission of this myth in public discourse within the city of Hanover itself. The textual testimonies found (for example, on homepages, in literary works, or in advertising) were categorized according to different groups of people as well as economic and governmental institutions, and grouped into narrative patterns. This captured the knowledge and attitudes regarding the topos and revealed dominant thinking patterns. The results show that the myth is strongly anchored in the Hanoverian public in a variety of ways: sometimes it is propagated as fact, at other times it is toned down as hearsay; some perceive it as a trademark of Hanover, others view it critically against the background of the former city dialect (“Hannöversch”). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing firms navigate a dynamic environment characterized with volatility and complexity, where survival hinges upon adaptability and responsiveness to external forces. The pursuit of rapid growth, profit and competitive advantage in the cosmetics market often leads some companies to engage in unlawful and unethical practices, including copyright and trademark infringement and misleading marketing, which creates problems for honest consumers and the entire industry's sustainability and leads to legal cases of fraud. This has led to the emergence of a specific type of marketing ‒ forensic marketing, characterised by a thorough check (often in a legal context) of all the facts and data accompanying marketing policy. This study examines how forensic marketing dimension influence the consumer behavior using the case study of 3 skincare products in Nigeria, including the impact of copyright violation on brand awareness, trademark infringement on consumer patronage, and the impact of misleading advertising on consumer loyalty. In solving this problem, the article analyses the provisions of the Theory of Buyer Behaviour, the Nicosia Model and the Psychoanalytic Model. The study is based on the results of an online survey of 384 Nigerian consumers of cosmetic skincare products (a five-point Likert scale was used for answers, Bill Golden technique was used to determine the sample size, Cronbach's Alpha test was used to confirm reliability, and SmartPLS software was used for data processing). Descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and skewness) and inferential (structural equation modelling (SEM) by utilising the partial least squares (PLS) version) analyses were carried out. The modelling empirically confirms the validity of all three hypotheses: 1) respondents perceive copyright infringement as having a significant relationship with brand awareness, with the strongest impact on a product idea, moderate impact on brand name, and weak impact on promotion strategy; 2) trademark infringement practices have a significant impact on consumer patronage, with design having the strongest impact, signs and symbols having a moderate impact, and colour having a weak impact; 3) deceptive marketing practices have a significant impact on customer loyalty, with advertising having the most significant impact, product quality having a moderate impact, and labelling and packaging having a weak impact. The article emphasises the importance of regularly informing consumers about the quality and features of products, as well as encouraging whistleblowers through reward systems. By adopting ethical marketing practices, companies can build a reputation that will ultimately benefit society, strengthen their reputation, and influence consumer purchasing decisions.

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This opinion explores what constitutes a trademark parody in an artistic context and when it crosses the line of trademark infringement in dilution cases which occur beyond the traditional trademark protection from the likelihood of confusion. This is shown by analysing the latest two decisions regarding trademark parody handed down by the German Frankfurt am Main Regional Court in a case in which Hermès has suffered a setback in its attempt to prevent a fashion label from using its iconic Birkin handbag at the Berlin fashion show in 2023. While parody is considered a protected form of speech or artistic expression, no clear-cut legal rule separates a legitimate parody from an infringing use, in particular in cases of so-called mixed expressions where the reference to the protected trademark is not closely tied to commercial use but still happens outside of a purely artistic context. Compared to the statutory copyright's flexible fair use defence, there is simply too little case law available to draw on in trademark dilution law. The few rigid defences German courts have cobbled together in trademark cases illustrate that trademark could benefit from a clearer identification of use categories. The following analysis of these decisions aims at highlighting that urgent trademark reforms are necessary in the area of art-related fair use defences. Furthermore, the following analysis will illustrate how big corporations like Hermès can fail when attempting to use trademark rights to control the meaning not only of wealth and exclusivity but also of conspicuous consumption and the equally conspicuous display of wealth, status and power in male-dominated domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Court of Justice of the European Union has recently rendered preliminary rulings in two separate European Union trade mark (EUTM) infringement cases, Gemeinde Bodmann-Ludwigshafen (C-256/21) and LM v KP (C-654/21), confirming that a counterclaim for invalidity in an EUTM infringement proceedings is independent in scope and the outcome from the infringement action, reflecting the principle of procedural autonomy of national courts acting as EUTM courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fashion upcycling offers unprecedented opportunities for the sustainable reuse of clothing. Using second-hand garments as raw material for new creations, upcyclers transform used pieces of clothing into new fashion products that may become even more sought-after than the original source material. The more fashion elements enjoy trademark protection; however, the more legal obstacles arise. Fashion upcycling may trigger allegations of consumer confusion, brand dilution, and unfair freeriding. As the Introduction will explain, the exhaustion of trademark rights after the first sale does not necessarily dispel concerns about trademark infringement. The rearrangement of branded garment components in the upcycling process may render the first sale doctrine inapplicable and give the trademark proprietor ammunition to oppose the resale. Against this background, the analysis explores other strategies to assure fashion upcyclers that, as long as they do not specifically aim at misleading consumers or damaging and exploiting protected brand insignia, they can rework trademarked fashion items without risking the verdict of infringement. To lay groundwork for this approach, Section I focuses on trademark theory that stresses the need to develop a specific set of rules capable of shielding the expressive use of trademarks against allegations of trademark infringement. In the light of cultural sciences, Section II demonstrates that fashion upcycling constitutes a specific form of artistic speech – and a specific form of expressive trademark use – that has particular societal value in the current environmental crisis. It offers a vision of alternative, more sustainable production and consumption patterns. Therefore, fashion upcycling should benefit from breathing space for free speech in trademark law. Taking this insight as a starting point, Section III discusses two avenues for supporting fashion upcycling in trademark contexts: first, the option of adopting a strict test of use as a trademark that could immunize sustainable fashion reuse from allegations of trademark infringement on the ground that consumers will understand the specific reuse context and perceive third-party trademarks on circular economy products as mere decorative elements. Second, the option of strengthening defenses, in particular the referential use defense, by developing labelling guidelines that allow upcyclers to ensure compliance with the requirement of honest practices in industrial or commercial matters. The Conclusion offers concluding remarks. The EU trademark system – the Trade Mark Regulation (“EUTMR”) and the Trade Mark Directive (“TMD”) – will serve as a reference point for the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]