Search results for

Canada's Federal Court has imposed higher standards of candour on the country's patent applicants. Shonagh McVean and Nathaniel Lipkus explain more

New examination standards for medicinal inventions have recently been implemented. Naoki Koizumi and Taku Yamada of TMI Associates explain how they will affect inventions relating to new dosages or administration

Japan's IP High Court is advocating new rules on when patent term extensions for pharmaceuticals should be granted. Shintaro Yamada of Shiga International Patent Office explains what they mean in practice

null

Hideo Doi of the Japan Intellectual Property Association looks at the debate over compulsory licensing of green technology and outlines an alternative proposal

When a new business is adopting a mark that will serve as the source identifier for their goods or services, a common option chosen is the surname of one of the company's principals. Often, the thought is that using a particular person's surname as a brand name will help create a correlation in the minds of consumers between the products or services offered and the person offering them. However, there are certain limitations with respect to obtaining a trade mark registration for a mark that consists solely of a person's name that a company should bear in mind when choosing to adopt their personal name as a brand name.

On November 9 2009, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in In re Bilski, a case that will likely impact whether business methods, already patented and to be patented, are eligible for patent protection under US law. Patent-eligibility under section 101 of the US patent code is one of several hurdles to patentability, and requires that an invention be a "new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter". Not all processes are patent-eligible. Although the Supreme Court has not yet precisely defined what is required of a process to be eligible, it has identified what is not eligible for patenting – laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas (the Diehr test).

Colorplus Fashions, an Indian corporation, applied for registration of the mark ColorPlus (stylized) in Thailand in Class 25 for apparel products. In examining the application, the Trade Mark Registrar determined that the word "colorplus" signifies colourful or high-quality colours, which is directly descriptive of the properties and/or characteristics of the goods applied for. The mark was therefore refused for registration on the grounds of nondistinctiveness. Colorplus filed an appeal to the Board of Trade Marks, but the Board agreed with the Registrar's refusal on the same grounds. Facing rejection of the mark, Colorplus filed a civil suit before the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court in an attempt to overturn these decisions.

In many jurisdictions, non-conventional trade marks are in principle recognised as valid and viable trade mark types, but trade mark owners seeking to register such marks will often face special problems, with stricter registrability tests being applied than in the case of conventional trade marks. This is certainly also the situation in Switzerland under current practice. However, in a recently published decision, the Federal Supreme Court established for the first time in its practice the criteria for registrability of musical marks (sound marks consisting of a sequence of musical notes) and thereby significantly facilitated the registration of such marks compared to the previous practice of the Swiss Trade Mark Office and the Federal Administrative Court.

A comprehensive indication means an indication of goods including various goods and is divided into comprehensive indication in a narrow sense, as recognised on January 1 2007, and comprehensive indication in a broad sense, as recognised on September 16 2008. A comprehensive indication in a broad sense means an indication of goods which falls under multiple similarity codes within the same class, for example clothing, and comprehensive indication in a narrow sense means an indication of goods which falls under the same similarity code within the same class, for example footwear.