Latest Managing Trade marks News

• Interview: Ricardo Blancaflor, Philippines IP Office

  The Philippines' decision to join the Madrid Agreement will be good for businesses, says Blancaflor, in an exclusive interview. Law firms need to realise that their clients pull the strings

• Interview: Rosa Wilkinson, innovation director at the UK IPO

  Rosa Wilkinson joined the IPO in September last year after working with UK Trade and Investment and Lloyds Bank, where she served as director of public policy and regulation. She tells Emma Barraclough about her IP role

• Court dodges aesthetic functionality in Maker’s Mark case

  A US appeals court last week declined to answer whether aesthetic functionality is a valid defence to trade mark infringement

• Why the latest eBay ruling has an upside for IP owners

  France’s highest court has ruled in the latest round of a battle between online auction site eBay and luxury goods company LVMH

• Quiz of the week – INTA Annual Meeting 2012

  This week’s IP quiz questions all relate to last week’s INTA Annual Meeting in Washington DC. How many can you answer?

• What’s on this week

  Managing IP lists the IP conferences, decisions and meetings taking place this week

• Tax planners see advantages in Singapore

  Is Singapore the most tax-friendly location for holding IP rights? According to speakers at a seminar in Hong Kong today, it might be

• Maximize protection in Africa

  An INTA Annual Meeting panel today will discuss the best strategies for protecting your marks in Africa, as James Nurton discovers.

Trade mark class headings

• IP Translator: AG says OHIM is wrong on class headings

  The Advocate General at Europe’s highest court has said today that OHIM’s class-heading-covers-all approach to applications does not provide the clarity required for registering trade marks

• Why brand owners could lose rights in Europe

  IP owners with trade marks in Europe should review their portfolios before the IP Translator decision to avoid losing the scope of their rights

• IP Translator hearing: what the parties said

  Lawyers representing the UK, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and France lined up this week to tell the Court of Justice why OHIM should change its practice on class headings and how it affects trade mark owners

• Managing IP’s guide to the IP Translator case

  Officials from OHIM and national IP offices are heading to Luxembourg to urge 13 judges from Europe’s highest court to rule in their favour in a case relating to class headings. Managing IP explains the dispute

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Character merchandising

• Angry Birds tempt the Chinese with mooncakes

  As China’s year of the dragon approaches, Rovio, the Finnish company that created Angry Birds, will launch a new version of the game for its growing Chinese fanbase – part of a sophisticated licensing strategy in the country

• Hello Kitty and Disney reveal China licensing secrets

  Two of the most successful brand licensors in the world explained how they intend to grow their China businesses at a conference in Hong Kong this week

• Betty Boop infringement claims rejected

  A US appeals court has dealt a blow to character merchandising, in a copyright and trade mark dispute over the cartoon character Betty Boop

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Trade marks in India

• Indian IP office gets a new head

  The head of India’s IP Office, PH Kurian, is to step down in less than a fortnight and will be succeeded by Chaitanya Prasad

• India considers IP office overhaul

  India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has launched a review of the organisational structure of the IP office that could split the patent and trade mark departments and make them autonomous agencies

• Concerns grow over Indian trade mark office problems

  Admissions that over 44,000 trade mark files have gone missing in India and that the trade mark database is full of errors are just the latest in a litany of administrative errors, incompetence and corruption at the country’s trade mark offices

• Lawyers welcome corruption arrest in India

  The arrest of a gold-loving deputy trade mark registrar in Chennai last week for corruption could reinvigorate the drive to clean up India’s trade mark system, said lawyers this week

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