Counterfeiting: an increasing global phenomenon

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When goods are counterfeited, rights holders lose revenue, market share, and can face significant damage to the brand’s reputation. Counterfeit products are often poor quality and can even be dangerous, so consumers may be putting themselves at risk without even realising it. The difficulties in evaluating damage The scale of counterfeiting – like any other …
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More Copyright in Selfies; Australian Politicians and other Animals

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Our recent blog on ownership of copyright in animal selfies here has generated a couple of follow up questions. 1. Is there copyright in segments of wildlife films where a hidden camera is activated by detecting the animal’s movement? Yes. Cinematograph films (as the Copyright Act quaintly refers to them ) unlike photographs are not “works”, …
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Trade mark squatters in China

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China follows a ‘first-to-file’ rule for obtaining trade mark rights. This means that the first person to file a trade mark application will generally have priority over a prior user of the trade mark in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  There is no common law protection for unregistered trade marks in the PRC, except …
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Monkey Selfies, Elephant Expressionism – is there copyright in Australia in animal generated works?

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If you read The Washington Post, The Telegraph, The Guardian or The Age (or any other major newspaper) in mid-August, you may be aware of the dispute between Wikipedia and photographer David Slater concerning the ownership of copyright in a selfie taken by a monkey who, according to the photographer, had ‘stolen’ his camera. If not, …
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