Search results for

WIPO director-general Kamil Idris will step down in September 2008, a year early

Can IP owners take action against landlords who allow counterfeits to be sold on their premises? Reports from seven jurisdictions

The president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, launched a national innovation strategy on Monday, coining the term "Filipinnovation" to describe the project

In this recent case in Singapore, the applicants, Siemens AG, sought to invalidate the mark Maglev, owned by a Taiwanese company, Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industry Co. Ltd (the respondents). Siemens alleged, among other things, that the respondents' mark is devoid of any distinctive character, has become generic in the trade, and was applied for in bad faith.

In order to prove that a trade mark is famous it is necessary to show, among other things, that ordinary customers associate the mark with a high quality of the goods or services on which it is used.

On August 1 2007 a new evidence law came into force in New Zealand called the Evidence Act 2006 (the new Act).

In 2005 the Mexican Congress passed amendments to the Law of Industrial Property (LIP) concerning trade mark notoriety. With this reform, IMPI recognizes two different levels of trade mark protection.

In September 2007 the Court of First Instance of the European Union (CFI) annulled the decision of the Board of Appeal of OHIM with which the registrability of the word mark Grana Biraghi for various types of cheese had been confirmed. According to the Board, the existence of the Grana Padano protected denomination of origin, provided by the Community Regulation, could not obstruct the registration of the Grana Biraghi mark, as the term Grana was considered generic and descriptive of a particular quality of a product.

It is imperative for the plaintiff to prove that the process of manufacture adopted by the defendant or that such imitation amounts to infringement. This duty rests on the plaintiff, so as to establish the infringement suit prima facie. Undoubtedly, the question of infringement of a patent is a mixed question of law and fact. In this scenario the ruling of the Madras High Court in FDC Limited & Ors v Sanjeev Khandelwal & Ors 2007 (35) PTC 436 (Mad), that ex parte injunctions be granted only after an effective judicial scrutiny of both oral as well as documentary evidence, becomes of paramount importance.

Owing to international and national needs the Finnish Act on Utility Model Rights is under revision. The new act is expected to enter into force early in 2008.