Miscellaneous

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The approval is conditional on Microsoft complying fully with certain commitments. The Commission says that those commitments fully address the competition concerns that it has identified and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming compared with the current situation….

Read More… from European Commission clears acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft

 The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in the case of Lännen MCE Oy v Berky GmbH and Senwatec GmbH & Co KG (Case C-104/22). Article 125(5) of the Trade Mark Regulation (2017/1001/EU) provides that an EU trade mark owner can bring EUTM infringement actions in a member state “in which the…

Read More… from CJEU rules on paid referencing of trade mark on search engine website

UK law Court of Appeal reverses decision about Optis mobile phone patents In Optis Cellular Technology LLC and other v Apple Retail UK Limited and others [2023] EWCA Civ 438, a majority of the Court of Appeal have reversed the Patent Court’s decision. This was the third technical trial in the mobile phone standard essential…

Read More… from This Week’s Techlaw News Round-Up

The European Parliament Internal Market Committee and the Civil Liberties Committee have adopted a draft negotiating mandate on the AI Act. MEPs say that they aim to ensure that AI systems are overseen by people, are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory, and environmental friendly. They also want to have a uniform definition for AI designed to…

Read More… from MEP committees adopt draft negotiating mandate for AI Act

This book (now in its third edition) and its author probably do not need introduction to the readers of Computers & Law. Richard Susskind has been a pioneer in the use of information and communications technology for legal practice and the courts for decades and indeed is President of the Society for Computers and Law….

Read More… from BOOK REVIEW: Tomorrow’s Lawyers

There have been a few notable examples of far-sighted individuals accurately predicting dramatic technological innovations that have changed the world. Arthur C Clarke accurately predicted the internet as far back as 1974, Douglas Adams predicted Alexa (“the book” in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). Some readers may remember KITT the robotic sports car with…

Read More… from Navigating the Legal Landscape of Self Driving and Electric Vehicles

The Court of Justice of the EU has issued its ruling in Case C-300/21 |Österreichische Post. From 2017, Österreichische Post collected information about the political affinities of the Austrian population. Using an algorithm, it defined “target group addresses”, using socio-demographic criteria. Österreichische Post used the data to establish that certain individuals had a high degree of affinity with a…

Read More… from CJEU rules that mere infringement of the GDPR does not give rise to a right to compensation

UK law CMA refused permission to appeal CAT judgment regarding mobile browsers and cloud gaming The Competition Appeals Tribunal has refused the CMA permission to appeal against its ruling in Apple and others v CMA [2023] CAT 21. The CAT had quashed the CMA’s decision to make a market investigation reference into the supply of…

Read More… from This Week’s Techlaw News Round-Up

The European Commission has proposed Regulations on standard essential patents, compulsory licensing of patents in crisis situations, and amendments to the laws about supplementary protection certificates. These aim to create a more transparent, effective and futureproof intellectual property rights framework. The Commission says that intangible assets like brands, designs, patents and data are increasingly important…

Read More… from European Commission proposes Regulation on essential standard patents

SCL members will be aware that foundation models are a type of AI technology that are trained on vast amounts of data that can be adapted to a wide range of tasks and operations. Foundation models have many possible applications including chatbots, writing assistant and code writing, and generation of images for artistic or commercial…

Read More… from CMA carries out initial review of AI Foundation Models