Search results for

The smuggling police and customs enforcement officers take ex-officio action against smuggling offenses as per Anti-Smuggling Law no.5607, the basic purpose of which is fighting customs tax evasions. All smuggled products seized by such enforcement bodies are delivered to customs liquidation directorates for storage and sale.

Article 115 of Vietnam's IP Law prohibits any amendment of a mark in a pending application that "materially alters" the character of the original mark or expands its scope of protection. However, the question of what constitutes material alteration in Vietnam is not easily answered, as the law remains silent, and the interpretation of the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) can vary depending on the department or the examiner.

It seems that Britney Spears, when she recorded a phonogram of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll never thought that one day she would be protected by Russian court. The rights for that song are owned by a US company Sony Music Entertainment, which licensed the rights to its offspring in Russia with the same name Sony Music Entertainment Ltd. This company has the rights for the song on the Russian territory and on the territory of the CIS countries. It monitored TV shows and noticed that TV channel "Friday" ran a show "Heads and Tails" dedicated to Shanghai. That show included the disputed phonogram. Besides, that show was also placed on the Internet at the address www.friday.ru. Sony Music Entertainment Ltd did not authorise broadcasting the song in that show and sued the TV channel.

In a recent ruling (ECLI:NL: RBDHA:2017:15395), the Dutch Patent Court in The Hague had to decide whether or not Vialli contributorily infringed the Dutch part of SCA's European Patent 1 799 083 B1 relating to a toilet paper dispenser housing a roll of pre-cut toilet paper. The granted independent claim, which survived an opposition and appeal before the EPO, requires that the roll of toilet paper and an outlet nozzle of the dispenser are designed so that the interconnected paper sheets, for which specific dimensions were required, are unwound one at a time and emerge with less crumpling from the nozzle such that the toilet paper is consumed in "an optimum and pleasant manner".

In a recent trade mark decision the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, has rejected Starbucks' case against Japanese dairy producer Morinaga Milk and its Mt Rainier trade mark.

Artificial intelligence innovation is challenging to patent because of changes in US law, meaning trade secrets may be more appealing. David A Prange and Alyssa N Lawson examine how to approach AI asset protection

Recently, the 14th Senate of the German Federal Patent Court referred new questions to the CJEU on the criteria for Article 3(a) of the SPC Regulation (EC) No. 469/2009 (decision 14 W (pat) 12/17; CJEU: C-650/17) to clarify when a functional definition refers to the product in question.

In this Supreme Court judgment, the appellant claimed that they were the proprietor of the well-known marks Toyota, Innova and Prius and that the respondents were selling auto-parts and accessories in India by using the appellant's registered marks especially the mark "PRIUS" on their products. The appellant had no registration of the mark 'PRIUS' in India, whereas the respondents had a registration for the same in India since 2001. The Appellant however claimed that their mark 'PRIUS' was registered in numerous other jurisdictions since 1990. The Division Bench of Delhi HC vide its order dated January 12 2017 held that even though 'PRIUS' was a well-known mark outside of India, the trans-border reputation of the said mark had to be proved in India. Since the Appellants could not furnish necessary evidence to prove that the mark 'PRIUS' was also well-known in India, the Court ruled in favour of the Respondents. Aggrieved by the said order, the Appellant had filed a special leave petition.

Producers of champagne probably did not have a toast to the recent ruling of the CJEU about protected designations of origin (PDOs). The CJEU has broadened the possibilities for commercial parties to use PDOs, such as "champagne", opening the door to various (allowed) usages of PDOs for products that do not correspond to the product specifications.

The doctrine of "indirect infringement" has long been introduced into the patent systems of European countries and the United States. While there are similar regulations in the patent systems of Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, no substantial regulations governing conducts involving indirect infringement are embraced in Taiwan's Patent Law. It is thus not of rare occurrence in Taiwan that patent owners proceed to take actions against non-direct infringers by resorting to the Civil Law, alleging that they are joint infringers.