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On July 2 2009 the Republic of Poland acceded to the Geneva Act (1999) of the Hague Agreement, which enables the protection of industrial designs in a number of member states and intergovernmental organisations by filing a single international application with the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization. At present, there are 35 contracting parties to the Geneva Act, while the total number of contracting parties to the Hague Agreement amounts to 56.

They are not many but they are nuisance: unable or unwilling to conduct normal business, IP speculators find novel ways to win customers – such as registering a mark that is designed to grab attention. In a recent case the Patent Office refused two trade mark applications (numbers 2006721262 and 2006723074) in which protection was sought for goods in classes 29, 20, 32 and 33. The proposed marks were PU IN and ПУ ИН (in Cyrillic).

In Tanduay Distillers Inc v Ginebra San Miguel Inc (GR No 164324), decided on August 14 2009, the Supreme Court (SC) reiterated the principle that a preliminary injunction is a provisional remedy for the protection of substantive rights and interests, and that its objective is to prevent a threatened or continuous irreparable injury to some parties before their claims can be thoroughly investigated and advisedly adjudicated. It is resorted to only when there is a pressing need to avoid injurious consequences that cannot be remedied under any standard compensation. The SC found that San Miguel failed to demonstrate clearly and unmistakably its right to injunctive relief.

The Pharmaceutical Management Agency (Pharmac) is responsible for managing the pharmaceutical budget for New Zealand's public health system. In particular, Pharmac decides which medicines will be subsidised. This has caused strained relations with research-based pharmaceutical companies wishing to supply the New Zealand market. In recent years, Pharmac seems to have had the upper hand, but a Supreme Court decision released in August and an agreement between AstraZeneca and Pharmac for the supply of two drugs, may indicate that the tide is turning.

On September 3 2009 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave its ruling in Case C-482/07 on prejudicial questions regarding the interpretation of Regulations (EEC) No 1768/92, concerning Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) for medicinal products and Regulation (EC) No 1610/96, which concerns SPCs for plant protection products.

The recent decision HR-2009-1735-A from the Supreme Court concerns the interpretation of Section 39 of the Patents Act and in particular the doctrine of equivalence in relation to an analogy method patent.

The High Court of Kuala Lumpur has, in a recent decision of its own, considered whether it has the powers to rectify the Trade Mark Register in an action to expunge a trade mark by unlawful proprietors.

A generic drug is a drug in which the patent term relating to the active ingredient has expired. Under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, the approval of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (the MHLW) is required for any manufacture and marketing of drugs, and as a matter of course, the same rule would be applicable to generic drugs. Although the application procedure for the approval of generic drugs is easier than that for the approval of new drugs, generic drugs are subject to certain restrictions.

Law 99/2009, which entered into force in August 2009, has introduced amendments to the Italian industrial property code with respect to trade marks and patents.

In two recent decisions by the Technical Boards of Appeal (TBA), refusals of European patent applications by the examining division of the EPO have been deemed to constitute substantial procedural violations.