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High praise for USPTO in independent annual report
The Trademark Public Advisory Committee has delivered its annual report into the management of the trademark operations of the USPTO. The report found that "the quality of the work of the Trademark Organization is high and rising".
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December 03 2008
UK IPO rebrands with new web services
The UK Intellectual Property Office has unveiled its new logo and website, which now has a dedicated area for professional users.
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December 02 2008
Chinese practitioners rally against Baidu
A consortium of lawyers in China looks set to file a mass complaint against the country's leading search engine, Baidu, based on the website's keyword-selling policy.
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December 01 2008
Features
Political challenges for trademarks in South Africa
With an election promised next year, the complex debate surrounding the famous springbok emblem still in the news and now a dispute over the name of a political party, WTR spoke to some of South Africa's leading trademark practitioners to assess the Rainbow Nation's IP policies – and what the future could hold.
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December 03 2008
Scrabulous: not yet game over
The Scrabulous Case is not over. Mattel may have won an injunction in India to stop the Agarwalla brothers’ infringing use of the SCRABBLE mark but the toy company has now launched an appeal against the copyright ruling. Practitioners expect it to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
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November 26 2008
Non-traditional marks in emerging markets: the new frontier?
Yahoo!’s recent success in registering the sound of its yodel in India shows that emerging markets are listening to brand owners' calls for greater flexibility in relation to non-traditional trademark registrations. But practitioners told WTR that the problems of describing a sound mark can sometimes present a challenge to registration, especially when registrars miss the beat set by legislators.
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November 18 2008
More updatesUpdates
New practice on acceptability of letters of consent
The Mexican Institute of Intellectual Property has changed its practice with regard to the acceptability of letters of consent. The institute will now accept a letter of consent only where the trademarks are similar (but not identical) and cover different or similar (but not identical) goods or services.
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December 03 2008
Australia
Lacoste victorious in battle of the crocodiles
In La Chemise Lacoste v Crocodile International Pte, the Australian Trademark Office has upheld oppositions filed by La Chemise Lacoste, the owner of the famous crocodile device mark, against Crocodile International Pte Ltd’s applications for the registration of the trademarks CARTELO and CROCODILE, which both contained a crocodile device.
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December 03 2008
United States
Minimal relevance of mark sufficient to excuse use in artistic work
In ESS Entertainment 2000 Inc v Rock Star Videos Inc, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has held that Rock Star Videos Inc’s use of a name similar to ESS Entertainment 2000 Inc’s PLAY PEN trademark within the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was protected by the First Amendment.
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December 03 2008
International
Indulgent complainant chokes on ‘tastytwist.com’
In Jelique Products Inc v cybarcafe, a WIPO panel has refused to transfer the domain name ‘tastytwist.com’ to Jelique Products Inc, the owner of a trademark including the words ‘tasty twist’. The decision demonstrates that simply obtaining an offer to sell a domain name from a registrant is insufficient to prevail in a UDRP procedure.
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December 02 2008
United States
Hershey garners sweet victory against furniture company
In The Hershey Company v Art Van Furniture Inc, a Michigan district court has granted The Hershey Company’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on the grounds that Art Van Furniture Inc’s delivery truck decoration showing a chocolate-brown sofa emerging from a candy bar wrapper was likely to dilute the distinctive quality of Hershey’s famous trade dress.
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December 02 2008
China
SUMITOMO trademark dispute comes to an end
The Beijing High People's Court has issued a final decision in the long-running dispute between Sumitomo, a Japanese steel firm, and Jiangsu Rudong Zhu You Chemical Company. The court denied Sumitomo's request to cancel Rudong Zhu You’s trademark 住友, which is pronounced 'zhu you', the Chinese pronunciation of ‘Sumitomo’.
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December 02 2008
