EU: The European Commission is to introduce a communication aimed at convincing small and medium-sized enterprises to make more use of IP rights and to take concrete steps to tackle counterfeiting. The objective of the communication, which was published on July 16, is to assist inventors and innovative companies – particularly SMEs – in making informed choices about protecting their IP rights and integrating them into their business plans. The Commission believes that more should be done to promote IP in Europe and it also stressed the creation of a Community patent and an integrated patent jurisdiction.
SAUDI ARABIA: The Arab League is to hold the First Arab Consumer and Brand Protection Forum at the Hilton hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from October 19 to 21. The Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and IP enforcement company Hemaya Universal are helping to organise the forum.
SWITZERLAND: WIPO's Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) adopted 19 of the 45 recommendations agreed by member states in October last year at its second meeting in Geneva from July 7 to 11. They included the promotion of a development-oriented IP culture and enhanced access to patent databases. The remaining 26 are considered more complicated and their implementation will be discussed at the Committee's third session scheduled for next year. The Committee also noted that there was a need to coordinate the CDIP's activities with other WIPO bodies and decided to begin discussions on a mechanism to monitor and assess such coordination at its next session. The Geneva meeting was attended by representatives of 101 member states, eight inter-governmental organisations and 37 non-governmental organisations.
UK: Land Securities, Hammerson and Capital Shopping Centres have won a battle to register their brands as trade marks in the UK, after a judge agreed that they provide services to the public. The three companies, which are the owners of the White Rose, Eden Quarter and Victoria Centre brands respectively, had sought to overturn three decisions of the UK Trade Marks Registrar, which had rejected their applications to register trade marks for shopping centres in class 35. In his ruling, published on July 25, Mr Justice Floyd said it is clear that "shopping centres make extensive use of branding". The shopping centres were represented by Eesheta Shah and Guy Heath of Nabarro and barrister Richard Arnold QC. The Treasury Solicitor instructed barrister Michael Edenborough.
UK: Music and film rights owners, six internet service providers (ISPs) and the UK government have signed a memorandum of understanding to tackle internet piracy by self-regulation in the UK. The deal, which has been described as bold and risky by IP practitioners, will see ISPs work together for the very first time with the music industry to tackle illegal downloading with the help of a three-strike plan. In February, the UK government threatened to introduce laws to force ISPs to take action against illegal file-sharing, just a few months after the French government had revealed efforts to approach the ISPs to fight internet piracy. The six ISP signatories to the MOU are Virgin Media, Sky, Carphone Warehouse, BT, Orange and Tiscali.
