Search results for

Every once in a while the question whether there is copyright on patent documents surfaces. For the Netherlands this question has now been answered. In a monograph, published at the request of the Dutch Association of Patent Attorneys, Professor Quaedvlieg (University of Nijmegen) has delved extensively into this subject.

Based on EU trade mark law, a trade mark registration can be revoked if it has become a common indication as a result of acts or omissions by the trade mark owner. In a recent ruling of the Court of First Instance of the EU Court of Justice, an interesting position was taken regarding trade marks that have become common names. The court ruled that the perception of the end users is the only relevant criterion. Additionally, "omission" is also understood as the omission by the trade mark owner to encourage sellers to make more use of the mark in marketing the respective products.

In a case regarding parallel imports of spare parts for motorcycles/vehicles, the Athens Single Member Court of First Instance, by its recent judgment number 6570/2013, affirmed the principle of Community exhaustion of trade mark rights by making extensive reference to the CJEU's settled case law C-78/70 Deutsche Grammophn, C-16/74 Centrafarm BV v Winthorp BV, landmark case C-355/96 Silhouette and recent C-449/09 Kabushiki Kaisha v IPN Bulgaria.

If an allegedly patent infringing product does not literally use a certain feature of a patent claim, but uses a surrogate means, according to German Patent Law, the product can still be sued for infringement under the doctrine of equivalence.

In a manufacturer-distributor relationship, does the distributor have trade mark rights? The question was answered by the Court of Appeal in La Pointique International Ltd v Soo Juan Choon & Co, Civil Appeal W-02-3706-10.

On March 15 1989, the Department of Health (DOH) issued Administrative Order Number 67 series of 1989 entitled Revised Rules and Regulations on Registration of Pharmaceutical Products. This required drug manufacturers to register certain drug and medicine products with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before release to the public, and to submit satisfactory bioavailability/bioequivalence (BA/BE) test results to secure a certificate of product registration (CPR). This requirement, however, was put on hold because there was no local facility capable of conducting the test. In 1997, the FDA issued Circulars Numbers 1 and 8 resuming the implementation of the requirement for the BA/BE testing.

"AMICO" Cjsc filed a trade mark application for a figurative designation comprising two wide intersecting lines of a red colour for goods in class 10, and services in classes 35, 37,42 and 44. Inside each line there were intersecting ovals of white colour shaped as stylised satellites orbits. The protection was sought in red and white.

In Europe and the US, numerous decisions regarding FRAND terms and the enforceability of standard essential patent (SEP) have been issued. In Japan, on February 28 2013, the Tokyo District Court made the first decision on whether the enforcement of SEP with the patentee's FRAND declaration would be limited.

Katrina Burchell, the former head of Unilever's trade mark team has joined UK firm Irwin Mitchell. Burchell began her career in trade marks at Allied Lyons before moving to ICI and Wildbore & Gibbons. She joined Unilever in 1997 where she became head of the global trade mark team. She notably oversaw the outsourcing of the administration of Unilever's 160,000 trade marks – the world's largest trade mark portfolio – to Baker & McKenzie in 2007. In 2012 Burchell joined French luxury goods company PPR as group IP director, splitting her time between Paris and London and managing a portfolio that includes Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.

Following the USPTO’s announcement that it will review its post-Myriad examiner guidance, patent lawyers say that a court challenge is likely if the agency does not change the policy