There are two important dates celebrated in April, for which it can be considered the month of intellectual property:

• April 21 as World Day of Creativity and Innovation; and
• April 26 as World Intellectual Property Day.

World Day of Creativity and Innovation

The World Day of Creativity and Innovation was established by the United Nations, with the aim of emphasizing and promoting the importance of creativity and innovation for sustainable development. This date is celebrated since 2018 and has become increasingly important, which was undoubtedly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

World Intellectual Property Day

This year, the World Intellectual Property Day focuses exactly on youth innovating for a better future, whereby the respective day is established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to raise awareness of how patents, copyrights, trademarks, designs, and other intellectual property rights affect everyday life.

Significance of the intellectual property protection

Timely protection of intellectual property is of exceptional importance for the business of commercial entities, i.e., for their competitiveness in the market, and consequently for the financial aspect of business as well, especially considering the technological development, which on the one hand enables swift exchange of information and trade in goods and services, while on the other hand, exactly for the aforesaid reasons, contributes to an increasing number of infringements regarding the intellectual property rights.

Additionally, this is a highly dynamic legal matter, which is developing in accordance with the business needs of market participants, so, for example, today there are 3D trademarks, patent protection of algorithms, etc., thus there is no doubt that some new forms of intellectual property, i.e., that will enjoy legal protection in accordance with the regulations governing the subject matter will be developed in the future.

Below you can read more about an interesting court case that was recently conducted in Japan, which is related exactly to the intellectual property rights.

Christian Louboutin Eizo Collection Co., Ltd.

Christian Louboutin, a famous French fashion company known for high-heeled footwear with red-lacquered soles, recently handed a loss in a legal battle in Japan against Eizo Collection Co., Ltd., concerning the afore-mentioned footwear.

Namely, according to the filed lawsuit, the above-mentioned Japanese company sold shoes with red-lacquered soles without the approval of Christian Louboutin, which represents an act of unfair competition.

However, the Tokyo District Court rejected those allegations in a judgement passed on 11 April 2022, since the company Christian Louboutin fell short in showing that the sole of such an appearance represents its trademark in the legal sense, i.e., the one which would enjoy legal protection.

Despite the plaintiff’s allegations according to which the red-lacquered sole is characteristic for the footwear designed by this French fashion house for more than 20 years, of which it earned more than 26 million dollars since 2016 alone, while it invested over 120,000 dollars per year in advertising of the respective products on the Japanese market, the said court took the position that in this case there is no unfair competition since shoes with red-lacquered soles are common in Japan, as well given that, due to the prices of products of the French fashion house, an average consumer cannot be easily misled about the manufacturer.

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