Search results for

On May 20 2003, it was announced that the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) is reviewing the current IP laws of Singapore. This undertaking follows shortly after the historic signing of the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) between US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in the US on May 6 2003, which includes a chapter on IP legislation.

After four years, the much-debated Arsenal v Reed case has been resolved in favour of the brand owner. Justin Watts and David Brooks examine the decision and, below, specialists in different countries explain the impact of the case in Germany, France, Benelux, Spain, Italy and on OHIM

A dispute between GlaxoSmithKline and Dutch company Class gives rise to important questions regarding the parallel import of original branded goods from outside the EEA within the European Union. In this case, a bulk of Aquafresh toothpaste was transported from South Africa to Rotterdam. The transportation took place by vessel at the request of Class. However the trade mark owner of the goods, GlaxoSmithKline, had not given permission for its import into the EEA and requested the Customs Department to seize the goods under Article 13bis of the Uniform Benelux Trade Mark Act.

In March, a Chinese arbitration body rejected Google's claim to have google.com.cn transferred to it from a local company. The panel of arbitrators failed to take into account issues such as the international conventions China is party to before coming to their verdict, argue Jerry Y Zhang and Xu Chang Rong

Work on the draft of an act about the next amendment of the Law on Industrial Property of June 30 2000, conducted by a legal committee of the Polish government with the participation of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, has finally been completed. The Committee of the Board of Ministers has also completed the examination of the draft of the amendment act. Soon the Polish Parliament (the lower chamber) will work on it.

Ralph Cunningham, Ingrid Hering and Sam Mamudi examine some of the more interesting and important IP cases from around the globe in the past 12 months

Last April the federal legislature discussed and approved the bill to regulate the e-signature in Mexico, by amending or adding certain articles to the Mexican Commercial Code (the Bill).

As the Korean Trade Mark Law only protects trade mark right holders within the scope of identity or similarity of the designated goods, domain name disputes in Korea are generally judged by the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act (UCP). There are three relevant cases, which could help us to understand more about the Act. The three cases involve the domain names of chanel.co.kr; viagra.co.kr; and jooyontech.com.

? Australia: The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 2003 has been passed by the Senate and received the Royal Assent. It deals with issues such as extensions of time in the Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Acts.

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong