Arquivos do Mês: November 2021

Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a patent application that appears to be a PlayStation controller designed for mobile gaming.

The patent, which was published this week by the Japanese division of SIE, describes a system for playing on a device attached to two control handles. The controller, which resembles the PS4’s DualShock 4 rather than the latest PS5’s DualSense, is described as “a left-hand part and a right-hand part gripped by the user’s left and right hands.”

According to the patent, the device’s included designs omit “a user-bendable part of the shaft and detects the tilt direction and the amount of tilt of the shaft part”.

If such a device comes to fruition, it can be used in conjunction with a smartphone to play PlayStation titles via Remote Play or the cloud, for example. PlayStation controllers are already compatible with mobile devices via Bluetooth.

The patent comes amid a new push for mobile games by the PlayStation maker. In October, SIE named former Apple Arcade content chief Nicola Sebastiani to lead the company’s mobile operations after job announcements that it was opening a new business unit to adapt its “most popular franchises” to cell phones.

It was recently confirmed that WipEout Rush will be released for mobile phones in 2022.

Source: PSBR

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has just released its annual balance sheet, which reveals new trademark registrations raised nearly 14% and patent applications raised 1.6%.

According to WIPO, entrepreneurship has remained “vibrant” despite the challenges of the global economy, with new products and services being created in response to the pandemic.

China led in new patent applications, with nearly half of the world’s 3.2 million applications.

Trademark applications raised 13.7% last year, even with the COVID-19 pandemic, informs the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The entity has just released its annual balance, noting that patent registrations raised 1.6% and industrial design raised 2% in 2020, compared to the previous year.

Entrepreneurs innovated

According to WIPO, entrepreneurship has remained “vibrant”, despite the challenges of the global economy, with new products and services being created in response to the pandemic.

The UN agency highlights that innovative professionals, designers, and brands are increasingly relying on intellectual property to expand their business and seek new forms of growth.

China in the lead

WIPO Director General Daren Tang also said that this is a “strong sign of innovation in the business sector, with companies introducing new products and services and finding opportunities to reach consumers, opening up new markets and presenting new ideas to the world.”

In 2020, China alone registered 1.5 million patent applications, nearly half of the 3.2 million applications worldwide.

WIPO also calculates that nearly 13.5 million trademark applications have been filed, with the highest number of applications being filed in China, Iran, the European Union, and India.

WIPO’s director-general said the report “confirms that even with one of the biggest economic downturns in decades, intellectual property registration applications have shown remarkable resilience during the pandemic.”

Source: UN

The two companies have been partners since the 1970s, when Hasbro settled an agreement with Estrela for the Brazilian company to launch its products in Brazil, with adaptations to the local market. Thus, The Game of Life became Jogo da Vida, Simon became Genius, GI Joe was renamed, first Falcon and then Comandos em Ação. The same happened with several other adapted products.

In 2007, Estrela reportedly stopped paying royalties to Hasbro. The American, in turn, decided to set foot in Brazil at the same time and brought in a commercial representation.

Today, Hasbro faces an unusual situation, competing with itself in the country: its Monopoly, created in 1935, for example, disputes space with Banco Imobiliário, launched by Estrela in Brazil in 1944. Brands that, according to the court, belong to Hasbro, while Estrela claims to be hers because they were adapted and present differences in relation to the original product.

Sought, the companies declined to comment. Estrela only stated, through its press office, that it will appeal. However, according to people heard by the report, there is an interpretation that she would need to comply with the sentence, even if she decides to take the case to higher courts.

Under the agreement signed with Hasbro, Estrela should register the brands it created for the products with the BPTO (Brazilian Patent Office) and, at the end of the contract, transfer the rights to the partner. The last contract signed between them is for 2003, being extended based on amendments. In 2007, Estrela would have stopped paying royalties for the use of the brands, but continued to produce and sell the products.

In the Court of Justice of São Paulo ruling, Hasbro’s defense says that Estrela was in bad faith since the company would have transferred the brands to Brinquemolde, of which it is the main shareholder. It would be a way to defraud the performance of the contract and prevent Hasbro from receiving royalties.

Estrela, in turn, defends that it owns the brands it developed and that the contract was unilaterally terminated by Hasbro.

If the Court of Justice of São Paulo‘s decision to collect and destroy the toys is in fact extended to retailers, it will take the sector by surprise as it prepares for two of the best-selling moments, Black Friday (on the 26th) and Christmas.

Source: Folha de São Paulo

“Uruburguer”, a sandwich delivery store in honor of Flamengo, received a warning letter from the club on November 8th. The team claims to be harmed by the use of names like Flamengo, Mengão, and Urubu without proper authorization.

According to journalist Mauro Cezar, the club demands compensation from a couple of fans who created the hamburger shop. Uruburger went viral on social media in recent months by the creative names of the snacks, all referring to the team.

“Our store was closed and we still have to pay compensation. How? If we’re not even able to work?”, the owner, Allex Martins, wrote on social networks.

“In the same way, in addition to using these brands, the company has been adopting a strategy of showing advertisements allusive to the Club, images of its athletes and official games, excerpts from hymns and fans’ chants, references to the years of the conquest of titles and historical events, news related to the Club, and other elements, all in an unauthorized manner, and with the clear intention of taking advantage of the enormous fame of the Notifier, aiming at attracting customers and consumers to its commercial enterprise”, says an excerpt of the notification.

According to ESPN, the store was baned from the main delivery app about a week ago, and the couple lost their source of livelihood. Allex and Roberta decided to open the hamburger in the face of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

“The dream turned into a nightmare,” said Allex on Instagram.

The store received around 70 weekly orders, and the numbers doubled on Flamengo match days.

Source: Extra

The president of BPTO, Cláudio Furtado, and the president of the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), Mori Kiyoshi, signed on November 9, the Memorandum of Cooperation for the renewal of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) between Brazil and Japan. Through the PPH, Brazilians can use the result of the examination of the patent application at the BPTO to speed up the analysis in Japan and vice versa.

The new PPH will start on December 1, 2021, and last for five years. According to the PPH requirements, which are unified for all countries with that the BPTO has such agreements, up to 600 applications per year can be accepted, in any technical field. In the PPH with Japan (until 07/11/21), 309 requests were made, and 236 had a technical decision. The average time between application and decision was 316 days.

Source: BPTO News

Researchers at the UFBA (Federal University of Bahia) discovered in the wild passion fruit leaf – Passiflora cincinnata, a common plant species in the semiarid region of Bahia – powerful protection properties against the action of the sun’s rays. From the plant, they developed a sunscreen, obtaining another patent for the invention – the tenth – for the University, granted by the Brazilian Patent Office (BPTO).

The creation of the product began with the master’s thesis by Danilo Menezes Oliveira, carried out at the Graduate Program in Biosciences at UFBA.

In studies carried out at the IMS Laboratory of Pharmacotechnics and Cosmetic Technology, the potential of the extract of wild passion fruit leaf for protection against ultraviolet A and B radiation was verified. This protection is important to avoid the harmful effects of skin exposure to the sun, such as premature aging and the risks of skin cancer.

He explains that, in addition to the plant extract, a series of other substances such as moisturizers and antioxidants can be added to the final version of the sunscreen through nanotechnology, which allows the manipulation of matter on a nanometric scale (on the order of a billionth of a meter) and favors the targeted delivery of substances that perform specific functions. Likewise, different sunscreens can be added to the formula to determine the protection factor offered in the final product.

Source: Agencia Sertão

On November 1st, Apple was forced to pay 12 million yuan (US$1.9 million) to Chinese distributor COL Digital Publishing, which supplies reading products through diversified channels, including works literature, comic books, and editorial products on paper.

The Chinese company has had several legal battles against Apple since 2012 over copyright issues, totaling four lawsuits against the iPhone’s owner. One of them took place in April this year when Apple had to pay a fine of 368,000 yuan.

This time, the decision made by the People’s Court of Tianjin Binhai (responsible for the case located in the north of mainland China) to punish Apple came after COL Digital found that third-party applications in the App Store, belonging to the US company in mainland China, were publishing unlicensed content, including novels popular in the country, which could only be distributed by the publisher online.

According to the Chinese distributor, the illegal availability of their works in third-party applications caused a loss of more than 70 million yuan for the company, in addition, there are still 83 cases open regarding infringement of rights copyrights in the App Store, including at least 460 titles owned by the Asian company. Thus, there is still the possibility of further lawsuits by the publisher against the iPhone manufacturer in the future.

The South China Morning Post reported that Apple declined to comment on the matter, while a lawyer for COL Digital upheld the Tianjin court’s decision but chose not to provide further details as the case is still ongoing.

In October of this year, Apple had already lost a lawsuit brought by Huawei regarding the use of the “Huawei MatePod” trademark registered by the Chinese manufacturer for its series of headphones. The American giant unsuccessfully tried to block the use of the nomenclature due to supposed similarity to the names given to its category of registered headphones such as “Pod”, “iPod”, “AirPods” and “EarPod”.

Source: Canaltech

A Brazilian who has been fighting for years to be recognized as the inventor of the barrier spray won a victory over FIFA. In April of this year, the Superior Court of Justice slammed the hammer on the jurisdiction of the Brazilian justice in the case and determined that FIFA would have to answer for any violations that occurred only in Brazil.

The decision of the judges on Wednesday followed this orientation. That’s why, in practice, the Brazilian’s request was partially granted – the lawyers were asking for compensation for the use of the spray around the world. However, the defense of Heine recognizes the result as a great victory while studying to file suits in other countries.

Heine Allemagne is now awaiting a million-dollar indemnity. Judge-Rapporteur Francisco de Assis Pessanha Filho decided, and was followed by his peers, that the Brazilian must be repaired for all damages that have occurred since 2012 – the amount will still be calculated in an eventual settlement of the sentence. In the initial part of the lawsuit filed in 2017, the inventor asked for U$ 40 million dollars.

In addition, it was decided that FIFA will have to pay R$ 50 thousand for having used the spray in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, with the Spuni brand covered.

Source: GE