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One case that has cast some light on co-ownership of trade marks in Singapore is Ng Chu Chong (trading as Grand Am Fashion Enterprise) v Ng Swee Choon & Ors (Suit No 1108 of 2001/E). Here the plaintiff and his sister, the first defendant, entered into a partnership called Grand Am Fashion Enterprise (Grand Am) to manufacture and sell fashion apparel under the trademark, McBlue. The trademark was created by the first defendant for the partnership and was registered in their joint names, trading as Grand Am. Subsequently, the first defendant withdrew from the partnership due to an impending bankruptcy but continued to work for the plaintiff as an employee. The plaintiff thereafter discovered that another partnership belonging to the first defendant's sister-in-law, named GA Fashion Apparel (GA) was marketing goods bearing the McBlue trade mark. The plaintiff brought an action against the defendants for trade mark infringement and applied for permanent injunction. The first defendant argued that she was entitled as a joint proprietor to authorize GA to purchase and deal with goods bearing the McBlue trade mark.

Lucian Enescu In Romania, the holder of a previously registered trade mark (or application), or of a notorious trade mark may, under law no 84/1998, file an opposition to the registration of a new trade mark (within three months from the date when it was published in the Official Gazette). The opponent may consider the new sign as being prejudicial to their previous right if it is identical or similar to their own trade mark or if it protects identical or similar products as the ones protected by their own trade mark. An assessment in the case of identical marks is simpler. For similar trade marks, three possible types of similarity must be considered when analyzing a new trade mark for registration: visual, phonetic and semantic.

Downloading free music in the form of MP3 files has been a point of discussion for a long time now. Only last year Napster, a file exchange program mainly used for music files, was closed down by a US judge. However, a Netherlands competitor to Napster, KaZaA, recently survived a controversial case against Buma/Stemra, the Netherlands agency for collecting copyrights.

Patent litigation is becoming more popular in the Czech Republic. Karel Cermak Jr of Cermak Horejs Myslil in Prague provides a guide for potential litigants

Michiel Rijsdijk of Arnold + Siedsma in The Hague examines why the European Court of Justice decided not to annul the biotechnology directive

The difference between first-to-invent and first-to-file is critical to the US and Chinese patent systems. Now that China has joined the WTO, inventors must keep proper records of invention if they want US patents, argue Jack Barufka, Bryan Collins and Catherine Sun

Venezuela’s Congress is debating fundamental IP reforms. But, warns Gabriela Nuñez, there are a lot of obstacles which must be overcome before protection can improve

Venezuela’s Congress is debating fundamental IP reforms. But, warns Gabriela Nuñez, there are a lot of obstacles which must be overcome before protection can improve

The German Trademark Act (section 8(2)) states that trade marks cannot be registered in the following situations:

Numerous forms of IP rights insurance are now available. Janice Denoncourt argues that insurance can be used offensively and defensively and is something all IP owners should consider