Search results for

Managing IP lists the leading firms for copyright work in 22 of the world’s most important IP markets

China’s courts are increasingly willing to hear actions for declarations of non-infringement of patents. Qi Wang and Shaohui Du of Deqi explain how to make the most of the procedure

My marketing colleagues want us to add logos to our product to show that we use fair traded, organic, ethically-sourced ingredients. What do I need to know about using these kinds of marks?

When the USPTO issues a refusal to register a trade mark application based upon a likelihood of confusion with an existing third party registration covering a similar mark, one option that the owner of the refused application has available to it is to approach the owner of the cited registration to obtain a Consent to Registration. A Consent to Registration is essentially a written acknowledgement by the owner of a trade mark registration, which can be submitted to the PTO, attesting that there is no likelihood of confusion between the mark that is the subject of the existing registration and the mark that is the subject of the pending application.

The James Bond series of movies have enjoyed worldwide recognition all over the world for many years. However, the 007 trade marks were not given famous mark status in Taiwan when they were used to oppose registration of a local trade mark comprising the same wording 007 and a similar pistol device in respect of timepieces in the year 2000. The Administrative Court then had the following findings:

With a significantly higher level of regulation over trade mark licences introduced by the 2007 trade mark law, we might have expected to see an increase in the number of licence recordals, but that is not apparent from the number of licences published in the official journal.

Traditionally, the Australian Patent Office carries out the majority of substantive examinations of Singapore patent applications on behalf of the Singapore Patent Office. Lately, however, the European-based patent offices of Austria, Denmark and Hungary are increasingly carrying out substantive examinations of Singapore patent applications.

Nanotechnology has sparked activities in seemingly unrelated fields. The Patent Office faced a growing number of applications claiming trade marks that incorporate the word "nano". The businesses try not to be behind the time and swarm to stake a claim to anything nano. The number of nano trade marks is about or more than 400 and almost all of them have been registered in the recent past.

The conduct of a raid by authority of a judicial search warrant, preceding a criminal action for trade mark infringement or unfair competition is perceived by many trade mark owners as one of the more effective means of combating counterfeiting, because it allows for immediate seizure of the infringing goods and there is the threat of possible imprisonment of the infringers. Therefore, a raid yielding negative results is disappointing not only to the IP owners but also to the lawyers and enforcement agencies involved. It also emboldens the alleged infringers to file a suit for damages against the search warrant applicants. This was the situation in the case of Arthur Del Rosario and Alexander Del Rosario vs Hellenor Donato, Jr. and Rafael V. Gonzaga (docketed under GR no 180595), decided by the Supreme Court on March 5 2010.

Mexican intellectual property law protects producers, manufacturers, and service providers of all types from having the distinctive features of their products copied, exploited or reproduced without the proper authorisation.