Search results for

Tacking allows you to secure priority for your US trade marks by citing earlier registrations. But Thomas M Williams warns that recent cases have limited trade mark owners' ability to tack old marks on to new ones

Franchising has a big role to play in internet business. As the e-conomy takes off, Mark Abell and Andrew Scott argue that traditional views of market exclusivity in Europe must be changed

The explosive growth in the internet has forced businesses to find new ways of valuing all their assets, not least their brands. Weston Anson explains the main approaches that are emerging for internet brand valuation

As global protection becomes more desirable and more expensive, the new Patent Law Treaty promises to make the process less painful. But progress towards harmonization is slow and pain-staking. Tabitha Parker reports

Related Information

Related Information

The legal status of information available on the internet has been cast into doubt again, with the latest copyright case brought by a UK estate agent.

The US Patent and Trademark Office is facing the loss of 25% of next year's income, under budget proposals in the House Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill. The cuts come as business is soaring: patent applications were up 12% last year, and trade mark applications increased 40%.

Xerox has lost its three-year battle with 3Com over patent infringement of its "Unistroke" software on the basis that there was "no genuine issue to any material fact". The decision on June 8, in Rochester, New York, by US district judge Michael A Telesca, destroys Xerox's hopes of receiving royalties on each Palm handheld organiser sold.

According to German case law, patents directed to the use of a substance or a device for a certain purpose may confer protection which goes beyond the actual application of the method of use. If the product involved shows an "obvious orientation" or "apparent adaptation" towards the protected use, a use claim protects a patentee essentially in the same manner as a product claim directed to that product. This adaptation of the product includes acts as formulation, ready-for-use packaging together with instructions, dosage (for medical substances), or similar preparations towards the protected use.