UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) - Annual Brands Seminar

Trade Marks and the Internet - US and European Views

Speakers:
Barton Beebe, Professor of Law, New York University
Alexander von Mühlendahl, Patent Attorney, Bardehle Pargenberg

Chaired by The Hon Mr Justice Arnold

Wednesday 15 February 2012 from 6 - 7.30pm

This event is accredited with 1.5 CPD hours by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Bar Standard Board and is relevant CPD for IPReg. 

Programme:

About this event: 
What amounts to a trade mark infringement on the Internet is a a matter of vital commercial importance. Both the question of whether there is an infringement and who should be liable are subjects of wide debate and argument. Can a trade mark owner sue an internet auctioneer? Could others (ISPs, credit card companies via whom infringers are paid sand so on). And how far can a court grant remedies having cross-border effect. These questions are increasingly coming before the courts on both sides of the Atlantic. Is a common approach possible or necessary? Attendees will get a clear understanding of the current state of the law and where it may be going in the figured.

About the speakers and chairman: 

Sir Robin Jacob joined the UCL Faculty of Laws in May 2011 leaving the Court of Appeal of England and Wales to do so. Having read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, Sir Robin then read for the Bar (Grays Inn). He started practice at the Intellectual Property Bar in 1967. From 1976 to 1981 he was the Junior Counsel for the Comptroller of Patents and for all Government departments in intellectual property. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1981. His practice took him abroad often (Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, USA, and Australia). He was appointed a High Court Judge (Chancery Division) in 1993. From 1997 to 2001 he was Supervising Chancery Judge for Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in October 2003. He was Treasurer of Grays Inn in 2007. He continues to sit from time to time in the Court of Appeal and will sometimes act as an arbitrator or mediator.

He has written extensively on all forms of intellectual property. He often lectures, mainly but not only on IP topics, both in the UK and abroad.
 

Alex von Mühlendahl is currently an attorney at BARDEHLE PAGENBERG in Munich. He served as Vice-President of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) in Alicante, Spain from 1994-2005. Prior to this, he was the head of the division for trade mark and unfair competition law at the German Ministry of Justice, where he was responsible for amendments to the German Unfair Competition Act, the IP legislation following the unification of Germany in 1990 and the new German Trade Mark Act of 1995. He also represented Germany in the negotiations in Brussels leading to the adoption of the European trade mark directive and the Community trade mark regulation as well as in other international negotiations relevant to IP. Alexander started his career as a researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Patent-, Copyright and Competition Law (now: Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law), following studies in law in Germany and the United States. He holds a J.D. and LL.M. degree from Northwestern University and a Dr.iur. degree from Munich university. He is teaching inter alia at the University of Strasbourg (CEIPI), Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Queen Mary, University of London.

Barton Beebe is a professor of law at New York University, specialising in trade mark and copyright law. Recent works include ‘Intellectual Property Law and the Sumptuary Code’ 123 Harvard Law Review 809 (2010); ‘An Empirical Study of U.S. Copyright Fair Use Opinions, 1978-2005’ 156 Pennsylvania Law Review 549 (2008) and ‘An Empirical Study of the Multifactor Tests for Trademark Infringement’ 95 California Law Review 1581 (2006). He previously taught at at Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, and has been a visiting professor at Stanford Law School and the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center in Munich. Professor Beebe holds a J .D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and an articles editor of the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, a Ph.D. in English Literature from Princeton University, where he was a Whiting Fellow in the Humanities, and a B.A. from the University of Chicago (Phi Beta Kappa). Professor Beebe clerked for Judge Denise Cote of the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York. He is currently the the Anne Urowsky Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School.