Facebook defending its trade mark against domain fraud, a dispute over a colour-changing stone patent and a big hit against online piracy

Good morning everyone. Hope you are all enjoying the warmer days while being responsible. Heads up, you can expect our monthly article on Thursday. Now, onto this week’s news.

Facebook is suing for domain name fraud

Facebook legal team is very active and regularly scan the internet for domain name and apps that could infringe the Facebook trade mark. As a consequence, an India-based proxy service company “Compsys Domain Solutions Private Ltd.” has been targeted by Facebook and a lawsuit has been filed because 12 deceitful domain names were registered by this company (for example, facebook-verify-inc.com; instagramhjack.com or videocall-whatsapp.com). Not only were they deceitful, but these were used to deceive consumers (consumers would believe they were in contact with Facebook) and commit online fraud. Why is Facebook targeting this proxy company? Because it understands that registers and proxy services have the responsibility to take down deceptive and malicious websites.

Tiffany sued for allegedly infringing a colour-changing stone patent

According to the complaint filed by a Thailand based jewellery company (Jacob’s Jewellery Co.), Tiffany has infringed its exclusive rights over a patent for a colour changing stone setting (the stones are positioned in such a way that depending on the angle the colour of each stone changes). Apparently, Tiffany does not deny using the patent when creating its piece of jewellery, but it claims that the patent at issue is actually invalid. Indeed, Tiffany is challenging the “novelty” requirement, given that back in 1940, Cartier already created a colour changing piece of jewellery: the Cartier Tourmaline brooch. As many of our readers know by now, an invention cannot be patented if public disclosure has been made.

We will keep you updated on the issue!

Major hit against piracy in Europe

A total of 11 people were arrested (Alicante, Barcelona, Germany, Sweden and Denmark) in a European operation against piracy. The accused had a smart structure in place and were offering illegal services to close to 2 million users all over the world. After legally obtaining access to all digital platforms (Netflix, HBO…) the signal was then redirected through their platform and servers (in several EU countries), and then redistributed to the subscribers. Apparently, the services offered by the infringers were almost worthy of a legal platform (quality, a wide variety of offers, technical assistance…). Imagine a design were thousands of web pages all over the world granted access to more than 40.000 TV channels, platforms and shows that have generated around 15 million euros in benefits. The whole system has now been shut down by Europol and Eurojust.

This is all for today. See you Thursday!