Search results for

The success of several blue-chip companies in licensing their IP portfolios has made executives alert to the benefits of IP commercialization. But, say Don Davis and David Crawford, there are steps you need to take before you can be thinking of matching these corporate leaders

Once considered an easy target for western companies seeking to assert their patents, Asian companies from Japan to Taiwan are taking the initiative and negotiating some interesting licensing deals of their own. Emma Barraclough examines the trends

This month, MIP publishes the second and final part of the annual IP survey, ranking the leading firms in trade mark/copyright work worldwide. The tables on the following pages have been compiled following five months of research among IP practitioners. Here's how they were compiled

Andrea Lensing-Kramer and Peter Ruess discuss the peculiarities of an efficient yet often unknown tool for protecting intellectual property rights in Germany

James Nurton, London

The recent case of Schering-Plough v Norbrook (Schering-Plough Ltd v Norbrook Laboratories Ltd [2005] EWHC 2532) provides a useful summary of the law on obviousness, particularly the scope of the "obvious to try" test.

According to Turkish Patent Decree Law, a patentee is obliged to put to use/work the invention under patent protection and file a certified document to the Turkish Patent Institute within three years from the date when the patent was granted. Otherwise any interested person may request that a compulsory licence be granted.

In a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesgerichtshof of Germany, the European Court of Justice has been asked to determine the concept of "combination of active ingredients" in Article 1(b) of Regulation No 1768/92 on supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for medicinal products (Case C-431/04 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – Opinion of Advocate General Léger on November 24 2005).

On January 25 2006, the Mexican Law of Industrial Property (LIP) was amended concerning the legal framework of franchises in Mexico to incorporate a new infringing cause based on the unauthorized use by a third party of the image of a product, best known as trade dress (Article 213 XXVI LIP).

The Malaysian courts recently handed down their decision in Hu Kin Ai & Anor v Liew Yew Thoong [2005] 6 AMR 363. The plaintiffs had been selling watches in Malaysia and internationally since 1994 and are the registered owners of the trade mark "Blansacar with Five Stars Device" in respect of watches. They sued the defendant for trade mark infringement and passing off. The first plaintiff had also applied to register the Chinese characters "Wu Xing Shang Jiang" (meaning Five Star General) in respect of watches.