Waterfront Partner Matthew Harris has been quoted in the World Intellectual Property Review regarding a recent generic top-level domain (gTLD) decision by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In that decision, the WIPO panellist ruled against US fashion retailer Express’ objection to Donuts, the leading applicant for new gTLDs, from competing for the .express domain. In his comments, Matthew stresses that such decisions are “always going to be an assessment of the facts of the case.” You can read the article here.
Matthew is the Joint Head of Intellectual Property and Dispute Resolution at Waterfront and one of only seven UK lawyers appointed by WIPO as a Legal Rights Objection Expert.
The current legal framework in the UK does not allow copying of copyright-protected material for training generative AI models, except where it is carried out with permission of the copyright owner or done in a research or study context and for purely non-commercial purposes.
This matter deals with the Claimant’s (‘TVIS’) allegation of infringement and misrepresentation in relation to its “VETSURE” trade mark by the Defendant (‘Howserv’s’) “PETSURE” trade mark, used for pet insurance. In the first instance decision, the claim was dismissed due to the marks being highly descriptive and “not…