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Brazilian reform provokes alarm

Chipie wins global victory

Deals

The recent decision in Kimberley-Clark v Proctor & Gamble (Court of Appeal, November 24 1999) clarifies that the UK Court retains discretion to refuse patent amendment applications.

Monarch Company Inc (Monarch) owns the registered trade marks "KICKAPOO" and "KICKAPOO JOY JUICE" in Singapore for "non-alcoholic beverages" . Monarch´ s predecessors had licensed National Aerated Water Co Pte Ltd (NAW) to manufacture and sell carbonated bottled drinks under the trade mark "KICKAPOO JOY JUICE" in Singapore and Malaysia. The licence was immediately terminable by Monarch should NAW use any syllable or part of the term "KICKAPOO JOY JUICE" on any goods other than those belonging to Monarch. Subsequently, NAW started bottling and selling another soft drink called "KICK" for a third party, RCC. Upon discovering this, Monarch terminated the licence. NAW nevertheless continued to bottle and sell "KICK" and "KICKAPOO JOY JUICE" soft drinks.

As the sale of so-called "similar" drugs (SDs) increases in Mexico, the Mexican PTO seems to be as confused as Mexican consumers, and has not taken any measures to stop acts of unfair competition which affect the prestige of the pharmaceutical industry´ s trade marks and products.

There is no recent decision of the German Federal Patent or Supreme Court dealing with the patentability of plants or animals. However, issuance of the EC Directive on Biotechnological Inventions on July 6 1998 and the decision G1/98 by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) on December 20 1999, will influence the interpretation of the provisions on the patentability of plants and animals.

Estonia has revised many of its IP laws in recent years

Nine years of preparation come to fruition

As yet another supermarket challenges a brand owner over grey goods, Sandra McDonald analyzes the results of a new survey on the attitude of businesses towards exhaustion