Search results for

null

While companies are making tough decisions about where to cut budgets in a sagging economy, José Luis Ramos Zurita of Uhthoff Gomez Vega & Uhthoff explains why enforcing IP rights is one area in which they should continue to invest

Victor Garrido of Dumont Bergman Bider & Co considers the complexities surrounding patent applications for computer programs and business methods in Mexico, and offers advice for successfully navigating IMPI's restrictions on such inventions

Luis Schmidt of Olivares & Cia provides an overview of the global struggle between copyright and traditional knowledge

Bayer Corporation's petition to the High Court of Delhi to enforce patent linkage in India was dismissed with costs fixed at a deterrent amount. The respondents to the petition included the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), and generic drug maker CIPLA.

On May 24 1999 a Greek entity filed an application for a trade mark consisting of an image of Napoleon in uniform, having one hand inside his jacket, his other hand holding a roll of toilet paper, with the word Napoleon below. The trade mark was filed to cover toilet paper and other paper articles for household purposes.

The European Patent Office has released its 2008 statistics, which show that the number of grants is increasing again after a drop in 2007. Nearly 60,000 European patents were granted in 2008, which is an increase of 9.4% compared to 2007, but still about 3,000 grants less than in 2006. The number of refusals has increased by 42% over 2007.

In September, the Indonesian legislature passed the controversial Film Law. The law has been criticised for its contentious local film content quotas and for creating unnecessary administration. The law also creates a number of IP issues that are causing concern in the local film industry.

Many states will grant a corporate charter to an entity provided that the name of the company is not identical to another company formed under the laws of such state. Therefore, parties interested in using a particular name in the US often operate under the misconception that simply obtaining such name as a corporate name in a particular state is sufficient to grant it rights to use such name and to defend it from claims of infringement. However, even though a state may accept a corporate name for incorporation, such acceptance does not constitute an adjudication of the legality of such use and does not undermine or otherwise diminish the trade mark rights that another party may already have in the same or similar name.

Singapore's Human Cloning and Other Prohibited Practices Act (hereafter the "Human Cloning Act") came into force on October 1 2004 and has been in force for five years. The Act does not prohibit the creation of human embryos up to the 14th day of development or harvesting stem cells from such embryos for research purposes. The Human Cloning Act therefore provides for a relatively liberal environment in Singapore for stem cell research.