With the appointment of former IBM VP and assistant general counsel David Kappos as the new director of the USPTO, the US – and perhaps global – IP community has something to cheer about this year. Kappos has a tough job ahead of him, but most seem confident in his abilities and are excited by his 20 years of experience in the patent world. In the editorial introduction to the 2009 edition of the Americas IP Focus, we track Kappos' road to the USPTO and report on the reaction to some of his first public promises to the IP community.
Another headline-grabbing development in the US came in September, with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in In re Bose. That ruling has changed the standard for proving fraud at the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, making life for trade mark owners a bit less uncertain. In our US trade mark chapter, Tracey Harrach explains the case law leading up to Bose and why the old standard was incorrect.
On a more global bent, across the Americas and the world, ICANN's decision to open the domain name system to an unlimited number of generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) has brand owners cringing. In a roundtable hosted by Managing IP and sponsored by Finnegan, some of the key figures in that debate flesh out the problems and discuss possible strategies for avoiding the pitfalls of a potential domain name free-for-all.
Latin American nations continue to benefit from improved IP protections as a result of Free Trade Agreements and adherence to treaties such as the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid Protocol. The introductory chapter of the 2009 Americas IP Focus provides a comprehensive overview of improvements in IP rights across several Central American and Caribbean countries. The remaining chapters offer advice on some of the hottest topics from North to South: trade mark licensing pitfalls in Canada; how to get the most out of reexamination proceedings and ITC exclusion orders in the US; a new online appeals system in Mexico; and trade mark use requirements in Brazil.
I hope you will find Managing IP's 2009 Americas IP Focus to be a practical guide to the best IP strategies and latest legal developments across the Americas.
Eileen McDermott
Americas editor
Managing IP
