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The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that Pernod Ricard cannot renew its trade mark for Havana Club in the US

Portugal has launched an anti-counterfeiting website intended to educate the public about counterfeiting and provide an easy way to report counterfeit goods.

I know I need to register a brand before someone else does, but should I translate, transliterate or use a nick name?

Over the past few years, the use of gift cards has become increasingly popular among both consumers and retailers in the US. For the consumer, a gift card is beneficial because it alleviates the purchaser of the burden of selecting a particular gift and enables the recipient to select their own gift at their discretion. Similarly, the gift card is advantageous to the retailer because it guarantees an upfront payment and the potential for new consumer-driven business.

Thailand is one of the few jurisdictions that provides a mechanism for the protection of well-known marks. The mechanism is a relatively straightforward recordation, resulting in enormous savings (not just monetary but also in terms of time). The Trademarks Act confers protection for well-known marks, but lacks teeth. It was only in 2005 that the Department of Intellectual Property introduced a concrete mechanism for well-known marks (the Regulations on Notification of Well-Known Marks 2005). Several well-known marks have since been recorded, including Nike, Hello Kitty and Euro.

In 2011, the IP Court judges will be separated into two grand panels: one for the first instance level and the other for the appellate level.

In our article in last month's magazine, we reported on how Société des Produits Nestlé SA successfully obtained an ex parte injunction prohibiting the retail discounter Denner AG from selling and advertising coffee capsules compatible with Nestlé's Nespresso coffee machines which were similar in appearance to Nespresso coffee capsules. Nestlé's claims were based on a three-dimensional trade mark registration for the capsule shape, on a trade mark registration for the mark "What else?" and on unfair competition law.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) launched the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Japanese Patent Office (JPO) in 2009. The PPH programme is aimed to share search and examination results between the respective patent offices to expedite grant of corresponding patents.

The word Intel looks very attractive for a trade mark. It implies intelligence because the reader will easily guess the second part of the word, and it is read and pronounced easily. So sooner or later it was going to happen. A Russian company seemingly built a strong defence: it first assumed the name Comintel Ltd and later, registered the trade mark Comintel, No 259074 in Class 38 (TV broadcasting, cable TV, e-communication).

For more than 50 years, Sapanta, a Romanian village in the Maramures County in the northern part of Romania, has been famous for the unique way in which the local cemetery tells the story of the life of its inhabitants. Its initial creator – the craftsman Stan Ioan Patras – has done something that no one has ever done in Maramures, or elsewhere in the world: he has combined sculpture, colour and lyrics to turn this usually sad place into a joyful place to think, visit and remember.