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Peter Ollier, Hong Kong

Companies spend a lot of money buying and selling usage rights to software and related services. As such, various types of software licensing agreements are becoming ever more important for both IT companies and their customers. Despite the fact that contract amounts are often relatively large in relation to the company's other finances and that the product to be delivered often has an activity-critical function for the customer, it is extremely common that licensing agreements and the associated documentation leave much to be desired with respect to legibility, appropriate adjustments and so forth. This is especially the case when the software licensing agreements are not entirely standardized in their form, much less business-specific.

New Zealand for the most part has rather antiquated intellectual property legislation. The Trade Marks Act was in force for nearly 50 years before being replaced in 2002 and the Patents Act has been in force for more than 50 years. In a flurry of activity, two IP-related pieces of legislation were passed in late 2006 and there are several other draft bills being considered.

Our firm has virtually abandoned filing applications on paper. We feel that online filing is safer than paper filing, provided that some sensible precautions are taken.

On January 8 2007, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a measure which aims to strengthen the value of Chinese brands. By giving local brands a special status, and by promoting and protecting these brands, it hopes to boost the sale and export of local branded goods. As these gain popularity, it also hopes that the competitiveness of Chinese goods as a whole in the world market will increase.

Manufacturers of medicinal products are legally obliged to obtain regulatory approval for their product before marketing of that product may begin. However, where different salts, esters, ethers, isomers, complexes or derivatives of a brand (on-patent) drug are made by a generic company, and these differ significantly in properties with regard to safety and/or efficacy when compared to the patented drug, additional clinical data demonstrating the safety and/or efficacy of that generic drug must be submitted by the generic company to the marketing authority.

The draft legislation discussed in the MIP briefing on Ethiopia in May 2006 was promulgated on July 7 2006 under The Trade Mark Registration and Protection Proclamation 501/2006 (the Proclamation).

This month MIP publishes part one of the world's most detailed and authoritative survey of the IP market. Following five months' research, in this issue we list the leading firms in patent prosecution and contentious work in 65 jurisdictions

Foreign IP owners used to think that China was reluctant to grant well-known mark status to their trade marks. They need to think again, says Huang Hui, as he explains how brand owners can use the rules to maximize their rights

Ensuring that expert witness evidence is used to maximum effect is crucial in IP litigation. Nick Gardner and Duncan Ribbons introduce a guide to the most effective way to marshal and deploy your expert evidence prepared by lawyers in seven jurisdictions