Marathon Patent Group buys $150m in Bitcoin…Keep up with what has been happening this week in our latest IP news round-up…

Tommy Hilfiger invalidates copycat brands logo

A Chinese company has acquired a registered trademark for ‘girdles (clothes)’, which has a similar logo as Tommy Hilfiger’s famous flag logo. Even though Tommy Hilfiger does not have an earlier trademark registration they have successfully invalidated the company’s trademark on the grounds of similarities and prior use.

Japan passes bill to IP-protect high-value local produce

In order to prevent high-value produce from being exported illegally and planted overseas, the Japanese government had approved a bill to increase the intellectual property protection over high-value local produce in Japan.

Blackberry shares more than doubles after Facebook patent settlement

After BlackBerry has announced their patent settlement with Facebook early this year, their shares have more than doubled. In 2018, BlackBerry sued Facebook for patent infringement against the company’s messaging technology and has won their case in December 2020.

Marathon Patent Group buys $150m in Bitcoin

Marathon Patent Group (MARA) a cryptocurrency mining company has bought $150m in bitcoin which cost $31,100 per coin. Merrick Okamoto, CEO of Marathon has said that buying bitcoin has accelerated his mining company’s transformation in a ‘pure-play bitcoin investment option for Wall Street trader interested in cryptocurrency.

Microsoft patent lets us communicate with loved ones who has passed

A recently disclosed Microsoft patent will allow us to communicate with our loved ones who have passed with technology that enables 3D motion images and realistic voice reconstruction as well as distinct personality traits to create a chat bot to communicate with. The patent called ‘Creating a Conversational Chat Bot of a Specific Person’ was filed in 2017 and approved last month. The chat bot will also be able to use social media posts, electronic messages and even written letters to cultivate a digital version of the individual.