Search results for

A review of the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 is currently under way in New Zealand. The New Zealand Law Commission (NZLC) has recommended a complete redraft of the current legislation, which governs the sale and supply of alcohol, to ensure accessibility to non-legal professionals required to abide by its provisions.

We know that the most important purpose of a trade mark is to allow a customer to distinguish this product, with minimal private and social costs, from similar goods made by other manufacturers.

Following a trend in several major patent offices around the world with respect to the protection of business method-related patents, the Mexican Patent Office is shifting more decisively towards summarily rejecting applications seeking to protect such inventions.

The Italian Ministry of Economic Development, which is responsible for all matters relating to IP rights, has recently been reorganised. This reorganisation involved the appointment of a new director of the Italian PTO and the creation of the National Anti-counterfeiting Council, a body aimed at directing, promoting and coordinating the strategic activities undertaken by the national administration and improving anti-counterfeiting activity at a national level.

On October 9, the Osaka High Court acquitted the developer of the file sharing software Winny of abetting the illegal copying over the internet. The prosecutors appealed to the Supreme Court.

After almost a year's delay, the government's long anticipated review of Indonesia's IP legislation is back on the agenda.

Under the Indian Patent Act a patent is available on an invention that is new, useful and is not obvious to the person skilled in the art. The invention, a product or a process, must satisfy the test of constituting an inventive step, which means the improvement must produce a new result or a new or better article. In the case Strix Limited vs Maharaja Appliances Limited, which recently came up before the Delhi High Court, the technology in use was claimed to be a part of the public domain.

The different handling of the same nullity grounds by national courts of EPC member states and by the EPO is generally considered one of the obstacles to a unified patent practice in Europe. The Olanzapin decision as handed down by the German Federal Supreme Court last year was therefore welcomed as a major move bringing German validity practice towards EPO practice, at least as far as novelty is concerned. In fact, it seems that German courts handling nullity cases now follow the EPO's photographic novelty test.

Starbucks is opening a series of individually branded neighbourhood cafes that barely reference the internationally famous Starbucks brand. Jennifer Miremadi assesses the IP implications

Anuradha Salhotra looks at how a recent court decision in India could end the trend towards aggressive comparative advertising