Search results for

Etienne Sanz de Acedo has had a busy year as INTA’s Chief Executive Officer. Ahead of this year’s Annual Meeting, he spoke to James Nurton.

The USTR issuing its Special 301 report, Grooveshark shutting down operations, the MPAA demanding torrent sites end copyright infringement, Louis Vuitton losing its bid to save its checkerboard trademark, and Eclipse IP’s patent applications were in the IP headlines this week

According to the Mexican Industrial Property Law, legally organised associations or companies of producers, manufacturers, merchants or renderers of services may apply for the registration of a collective trade mark to distinguish the products or services of their members with respect to those of others from third parties. The law also states that collective trade marks shall be governed in the absence of special provisions, by those set forth in this Law for individual trade marks.

A proposal to consider plain packaging for tobacco products was raised in Malaysia at the International Nicotine Addiction Conference in Kuala Lumpur on April 23 and 24 2015.

A recent IP perception survey commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) reveals that 4 out of 5 Singaporeans agree that it is important to protect intellectual property rights and the works of IP creators. They are aware that IP right infringement could give rise to legal penalties, and more than half of the respondents cited moral reasons as a key deterrent for not engaging in infringing activities. The household survey was conducted with the objective of measuring Singaporeans' awareness, attitudes and behavioural dispositions towards IP and issues relating to IP rights. These results were announced at a 2015 World IP Day Appreciation Event held in Singapore on April 23 2015.

The Madrid System for the international registration of marks, governed by the Madrid Protocol, is gaining popularity across Southeast Asia. Several countries in the region are preparing to implement Madrid as part of their commitments toward regional integration via the ASEAN Economic Community, which will be created at the end of 2015.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Commil v Cisco encourages trial courts to exercise their powers to award sanctions and attorneys’ fees against parties bringing frivolous patent claims

“Blackhorse is in many ways the mother of all pro bono cases,” Wilson Brown of Drinker Biddle & Reath declared in yesterday’s session, Taking the Ball and Running with a Pro Bono Case Like the Redskins Trademark Cancellation Action.

On January 30 2015, the Ministry of Finance introduced Circular 13/2015/ TT-BTC guiding the implementation of regulations in the new Law on Customs on Customs enforcement against IP infringement. Circular 13 took effect on March 15 2015, and, in line with the new law, brought about changes to the border control measures that had been in place in Vietnam for the past decade. Two months into the new regime, it appears that these changes, though seemingly not substantial, have increased the transparency as well as the effectiveness of Customs enforcement.

INTA has recently hired two senior staff members in its Washington, D.C. office. Deborah Cohn, formerly Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO, has joined as Senior Director of Government Relations while Lori Schulman, most recently General Counsel for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), became Senior Director of Internet Policy.