Search results for

The Community trade mark system will next year celebrate its tenth anniversary. Over the years many have benefited from its unique advantages. But the system is still subject to regular changes, which require practitioners' close attention, say Julie Kay and Pen Hosford, of Marks & Clerk Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys

A wave of decisions on (non) descriptive trade marks and likelihood of confusion have recently come out of the EU's Luxembourg-based courts. Bénédicte Linden and Jean L Pire of GEVERS examine the cases and the dangers of over-analyzing trade marks

Harmonizing EU laws and practices across all member states is one of the key goals of the European Commission and EU legislators. But how successful has this process been in the IP field, and how has it affected IP-owning businesses? Paul Joseph of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer explains

In June this year, MIP and the Stockholm Network jointly organized a roundtable in Brussels on the future of innovation in Europe. James Nurton, editor of MIP, and Meir Pugatch, of Haifa University, who is head of the IP and competition programme at the Stockholm Network, introduce a special report

Harold Wegner, partner of Foley & Lardner LLP

NIC-Argentina (www.nic.ar) has implemented new rules governing the .ar country code top-level domain (cc-TLD) domain names. NIC has put into force Article 5 of the domain name regulation, which was put on hold at the time the rules were enacted in 2000. Article 5 sets out that domain name registrations shall be valid for one-year terms, counted from registration date, and may be renewed indefinitely. Renewal applications will be received in the last month that the registration is in force, and domain names that are not renewed shall be eliminated from the Registry automatically.

The Hangzhou Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC), the local body responsible for administrative enforcement of trade mark rules, appears to be following the practice of Beijing's local AIC by giving special protection to certain well-known brands.

For its impact on patent owners, Phillips v AWH Corporation is one of the most important cases of the past decade. Thankfully, says Irv Feit, the Federal Circuit found a compromise between the competing approaches to claim interpretation

The decision to trust an outside provider with internal business responsibility is not taken lightly, but for a business looking to cut costs and improve efficiency, outsourcing business responsibilities to a trusted provider is not only cost-effective, but it can also be the most viable option for many of its activities. Already commonplace in the globalized IT industry, this corporate trend has begun to make its way into trade mark departments, as managements increasingly recognize the financial and administrative benefits of outsourcing trade mark renewals to a third-party company.

The practice of advertising one's own products by knocking a competitor's products or services is becoming increasingly common among companies in Europe. But are the legislators keeping up with the pace? Jeremy Dickerson looks at how the law is changing to deal with the issues