Latest Managing Trade marks News

• Hong Kong tries to stay ahead of the infringers

  The Hong Kong agency in charge of combating IP crime is to launch a new Electronic Crime Investigation Centre which it says will close the technological gap between infringers and enforcement officers

• Red bags and chambers tea: a day in the life of a barristers’ clerk

  Sue Harding is the senior clerk at Hogarth Chambers, a set of barristers in London that specialises in IP and chancery work. She tells Emma Barraclough what it’s like to help a group of self-employed advocates manage their business

• How BMW beat infringers in China

  German car maker BMW has won an important court victory in its long-running battle against a business selling clothes in China using a confusingly similar trade mark

• ICE targets Super Bowl fakes

  If you managed to score tickets to Sunday’s Super Bowl for less than the average resale price of about $3,500, you might want to check they’re not fakes before making the trip to Indianapolis

• Quiz of the week – January 30 to February 3

  Test your knowledge of the week’s IP news in Managing IP’s new weekly quiz

• Managing IP North America Awards 2012 – shortlists revealed

  Free access: The nominations for Managing IP’s North America Awards 2012 have been announced

• Pong and penguins: Europe’s best anti-piracy ads

  The image might look like computer game Pong, the classic 1970s tennis programme, but in fact it’s the winner of Europe’s latest anti-piracy competition

• StarHub is fourth company to apply for .brand

  An Asian telecoms company is now only the fourth brand owner to publicly declare an intention to apply for a new gTLD after saying yesterday that it wants .starhub

Interviews

• Trade mark examination with a view

  In the first article in a new series, Emma Barraclough finds out what a typical day for an OHIM examiner involves

• Interview: Eleanor Sharpston on the point of the advocate general

  In an exclusive interview with Emma Barraclough, Eleanor Sharpston explains the role of advocates general at the EU’s Court of Justice, the barriers to creating an IP tribunal and why she admires the ingenuity of parallel traders

• Interview: from the army to IPOS – Singapore’s new IP head

  Tan Yih San, who took over as chief executive of the IP Office of Singapore in June, tells Peter Ollier about his plans for the office and how his time in the army has helped him prepare

• Exclusive interview: António Campinos, OHIM president

  OHIM President António Campinos would like the Office to become “the true IP office for Europe” he told Managing IP

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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

• 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

• India’s top court deals blow to brand owners

  The Supreme Court in India has ruled that the trade mark Skincliniq is not confusingly similar to the Clinique skincare range in a set back for well-known marks in India

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