Latest Managing Trade marks News

• Interview: new INTA chief executive Etienne Sanz de Acedo

  Following the retirement of INTA executive director Alan Drewsen this summer, Spanish-born Etienne Sanz de Acedo will take over as chief executive officer from July 1. At present Sanz de Acedo is head of communications for the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM). He spoke to Alli Pyrah about his goals for INTA and the challenges that lie ahead.

• Food brands: avoid getting burned

  The image rights of celebrity chefs and the trademark issues involved in launching a food-themed reality TV show were among the topics considered at a panel discussion during INTA's Annual Meeting yesterday.

• Avoiding mistakes in the Trademark Clearinghouse

  The impending rollout of new gTLDs has concerned rights owners, but yesterday's panel at INTA's Annual Meeting, New gTLDs: Brand Strategies in Cyberspace, gave tips on how to use the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) system to help protect marks online.

• Halliburton: A brand full of energy

  Sue Windham of Halliburton, based in Carrollton, Texas, spoke to James Nurton about trademark and copyright work, how to help employees monitor counterfeiting and why responsiveness in outside counsel is key.

• Are you an ambush marketer?

  At yesterday’s session on ambush marketing, lawyers and advertisers argued for a balanced approach to the problem, because many brand owners will find themselves on both sides of the debate.

• Nine alternatives to the billable hour

  With in-house counsel under pressure to rein in legal budgets, outside firms are increasingly being asked to offer corporate clients alternatives to the traditional model of the billable hour.

• New INTA CEO to push global expansion

  Etienne Sanz de Acedo will become INTA’s new Chief Executive this summer. One of his first priorities, he told INTA Daily News yesterday, is to expand the organization’s activities into developing markets.

• EU and US pursue trade deal

  Nothing highlights the varying attitudes to IP around the world like trade negotiations. In an interview with the INTA Daily News yesterday, Anders Jessen of the European Commission talked through the multiple trade deals Europe is in the process of negotiating, and explained how cultural and intellectual differences drive such agreements.

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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