News

Week’s news headlines – aug. 8th 2014

DI BLASI, PARENTE & ASSOCIADOS is pleased to announce that its founding partner PAULO PARENTE MARQUES MENDES has been named by WHO’S WHO LEGAL as being among Brazil’s leading business lawyers.

Who’s Who Legal is a highly reputed and well known source of information about the international legal market.

 

 

 

US Patent Office rejects Apple autocomplete patent used against Samsung

The decision by the USPTO, while relevant to the most recent Apple v. Samsung patent-infringement trial, isn’t final and could take months or years to come to conclusion.

Saiba mais em: http://www.cnet.com/news/us-patent-office-rejects-apple

 

 

ICE Purchases Automated Trading Patents

The IntercontinentalExchange Group (ICE) has announced the acquisition of several patents related to electronic trading strategies, in an implicit bid to protect clients from predatory patent buyers.

Most of the patents in the deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, handle pricing and order entry systems in electronic trading environments, particularly automated ones. The patents in question are 7,177,8337,251,6298,498,9238,478,6878,660,9408,732,048and 8,725,621, along with various pending patents.

Saiba mais em: http://www.waterstechnology.com/sell-side-technology/news

 

 

Minister floats science funding based on patents not papers

ELEANOR HALL: The Australian Academy of Science has rejected the Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane’s proposal that science research funding should be tied to patents rather than scientific papers.
In a speech yesterday, Mr Macfarlane said the grant allocation scheme should drive the creation of jobs but the secretary of science policy with the Australian Academy of Science says this is a flawed approach, as David Mark reports.

Saiba mais em: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s4062660.htm

 

 

Washington Artist Files Intellectual Property Suit Over ‘Angry Birds’ Pet Toys

A Seattle artist who designed a line of plush pet toys called “Angry Birds” is suing the company that sold them, saying it cheated her of millions of dollars when it reached a deal with the Finnish company that makes the insanely popular videogame of the same name.

Juli Adams, 45, says she’s never played “Angry Birds.” But she did create a pet toy line called “Angry Birds” for New Jersey-based pet products company The Hartz Mountain Corp. in 2006, and said she retained the rights to her intellectual property even after she licensed her designs to the company.

Saiba mais em: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2014/08/07/337049.htm

 

 

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in the EU

Last year, Customs authorities in the European Union detained around 36 million items which were suspected of violating intellectual property rights (IPR). This information was recently published in the European Commission’s annual report on Customs actions to enforce IPR, entitled Report on EU Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights − Results at the EU border 2013.

Saiba mais em: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-08-07/news

 

 

High Court issues notice on PIL over disclosure policy of Patents Act
It has been eight years since Right to Information (RTI) Act came into being but the country’s activists are clueless about what happens when India’s most potent information weapon clashes with other information dispensation mechanisms coded in a host of other pre-existing laws–such as Patents Act and Companies Act.
This has become the moot point of a public interest litigation, filed by Shamnad Basheer, a patent expert in the Delhi High Court, which argued on Wednesday that the governm ..

Saiba mais em:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/39807320.cms

 

 

The battle against stupid software patents is on

How dumb are all-too-many software patents? “Spectacularly dumb,” says Vera Ranieri, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an advocacy group for freer flow of digital information. There was that patent on “scanning to email” and one on the confirmation screens you see when you’ve completed an online transaction, to name just two.

Saiba mais em: http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/the

 

 

Tesla puts trademark dispute to rest

The electric carmaker Tesla has ended its trademark dispute with a Chinese businessman over use of its logo. Tesla had sued Zhan Baosheng over use of the logo.

Baosheng also sued Tesla and demanded the company stop selling cars in China. Tesla sought damages from Baosheng, who applied to register the trademark in 2006 and was approved in 2009 in China.

Saiba mais em: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/12314/20140806/tesla-puts

 

 

 

United Kingdom: Online Infringement: Pirates Failing To Find Safe Harbour?

opyright rights holders, whether corporate rights holders, individuals or collecting societies set up to authorise the use of protected works of their members (together “rights holders”), object when third parties make unauthorised use of their works on the Internet. However, given that the unauthorised uploading may happen in one jurisdiction, from a server of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in another jurisdiction, and the downloading/streaming of the content occurs in yet another, how can rights holders seek to prevent widespread unauthorised dissemination of their work?

Saiba mais em: http://www.mondaq.com/x/333360/Copyright/Online+Infringement+Pirates+Failing

 

 

The U.S. Supreme Court Hopes To Limit Patent Trolling

The U.S. patent system is known the world over for its unwavering protections of innovation and the ideas behind it, yet recent Supreme Court decisions may have repercussions on how that system works. In the wake of the U.S. Senate failure to address the problem of patents trolls legal experts begin to wonder if the courts are taking over where Capitol Hill failed. Unfortunately neither the courts nor legislators have yet directly addressed the looming specter of government sponsored patent trolls and their impact on global trade.

Saiba mais em: http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/08/04/the-u-s

 

 

Suven Life Sciences granted patents for neurodegenrative drug
Pharmaceutical firm Suven Life SciencesBSE 2.39 % today said it has been granted one patent each by Australia and Eurasia for drug used in the treatment of neurodegenrative diseases.
Neurodegenrative diseases include Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.
Saiba mais em: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3974649

 

 

Comment and analysis on well-known trademarks in the Internet industry

Currently, owners of trademarks recognizedas well-known in the Internet industry include not only foreign companies engaging in business globally, but also Chinese domestic companies focusing on business in China; those trademark owners include not only companies merely providing Internet services, but also companies covering both the Internet and traditional industries;the trademark disputes involved include cases before the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) for oppositions and administrative complaints for civil infringement, cases before the TRAB for opposition reviews and dispute cancellations as well as infringement lawsuits before the Court for civil infringement.

Saiba mais em: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f4330dec-4a61

 

 

Colour Matters According To New European Trademarks Practice

Trademark owners who registered their trademarks in black and white on the understanding that this would protect all colour versions of the mark should assess their trademark portfolios in light of recent changes to European trademark practice.

Saiba mais em: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/colour-matters-according-to

 

 

Student Lawyers Get in on the Intellectual Property Boom

Times may be tough for some lawyers, but high-profile technology disputes and tweaks to federal patent law have been keeping intellectual property attorneys busy.

In fact, demand for their services is such that law school students have been getting in on the game.

Saiba mais em: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/08/05/student-lawyers-get

 

 

Apple entitled to $400M in Samsung profits, IU Maurer School of Law professors say in amicus brief

In a high-profile intellectual property case involving the design features of smartphones and tablets, the Federal Circuit will decide whether to force Samsung to pay Apple nearly $400 million — Samsung’s total profits on products that infringed Apple’s design patents. Though several high-profile academics have lined up in support of Samsung, Apple’s position on the total profits rule should prevail, according to Indiana University Maurer School of Law experts who have filed an amicus curiae brief in the case.

Saiba mais em: http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iu/2014/08/apple-samsung

 

 

Ultragenyx Announces License of Intellectual Property for the Treatment of Epilepsy and Other Seizure-Related Disorders With Triheptanoin 

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel products for rare and ultra-rare diseases, today announced a license agreement with UniQuest Pty Limited for intellectual property related to the treatment of refractory epilepsy and other seizure-related and neurologic disorders with triheptanoin (UX007). The intellectual property originated from research on epilepsy and other neurologic models conducted at The University of Queensland.

Saiba mais em: http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/08/05/656100/

 

 

 

Canada: Major Changes To Canada’s Trademark Laws—What Every Business Needs To Know

The Canadian government recently introduced a Bill which contained the most significant changes to Canada’s trademark laws in modern history. Due to the fact that the revisions were contained in an omnibus Budget Implementation Bill (Bill C-31, Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1), they were introduced without consultation and passed despite serious concerns from intellectual property lawyers and businesses over their potential impact. The Bill received Royal Assent on June 19, 2014, and is now the law in Canada.

Saiba mais em: http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/332300/Trademark/Major+Changes

 

 

The Court of Milan on territorial jurisdiction and unfair competition in a case concerning pharmaceutical products

By judgment no. 9086/2014 of 26 June 2014, Business Chamber “A” of the Court of Milan addressed some interesting issues regarding territorial jurisdiction and unfair competition.

The dispute arose from a hypothesis of interference between trademarks: the plaintiff, a pharmaceutical company and owner of the trademark “Inofert” had brought proceedings against the defendant, a competitor, because of its subsequent use and registration of the trademark “Chirofert” for similar (pharmaceutical) products.

Saiba mais em: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=bc0e7b27-105f

 

 

 

Intellectual Property: Valuable to Every Discipline

Intellectual property—patents, copyright, trademarks, trade secrets—plays a vital role in economic growth and prosperity. Yet outside of law schools, most American colleges provide little or no opportunity for students to receive any substantive instruction in it. As a result, students often graduate under the misimpression, no doubt shared by many of their professors, that IP is a topic of interest and relevance only to lawyers, with little connection to their own careers.

Saiba mais em: http://chronicle.com/article/Intellectual-Property-/147985/

 

 

Microsoft vai processar Samsung por descumprir contrato de patentes

A Microsoft anunciou nesta sexta-feira que vai processar a fabricante sul-coreana de equipamentos eletrônicos Samsung, acusada de desrespeitar as condições de um acordo de patentes.
Em uma mensagem divulgada no site da companhia americana, o advogado David Howard afirmou que a Samsung “utilizou a compra (da fabricante de telefones celulares Nokia) como pretexto para romper seu contratos sobre as modalidades de licenças de patentes de telefonia celular”.

Saiba mais em: http://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/afp/2014/08/01/microsoft

 

 

TD Ameritrade dispute turns spotlight on US patent legislation

A legal dispute between TD Ameritrade and a small trading software company has emerged as a potential test case in determining how large financial institutions might be allowed to interpret a controversial amendment to US patent law.

The America Invents Act was introduced almost three years ago as part of the biggest overhaul of the US patent system in several decades and was partly aimed at discouraging patent trolls – the non-practising entities that hoard intellectual property.

Saiba mais em: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b9104c9c-0107-11e4-b94d

 

 

Alcatel-Lucent Faces Patent Expiration Challenges

With the announcement that Kodak’s former president will now lead Alcatel-Lucent’s patent monetization efforts, Envision IP analyzed ALU’s patent expiration and issuance activity versus its peers.

Saiba mais em: http://envisionip.com/blog/2014/08/04/alcatel-lucent-faces

 

 

 ‘Color’ is the new ‘black and white’ for EU trademarks

Previously, a logo or design trademark that was registered as community trade marks (CTM) in the European Union (EU) in black and white protected versions of the logo in any color, but this is no longer true. Under a new CTM rule effective July 15, 2014, logo trademarks filed in black and white or grey will not necessarily protect the same mark used predominantly in color. This new approach, one of several changes resulting from the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) Convergence Programme, should inform both filing and enforcement strategies. This article explains the rule change and provides recommendations to optimize logo and other color trademark protection in the EU.

Saiba mais em: http://www.insidecounsel.com/2014/08/04/color-is-the-new

 

 

The Court of Milan on the registration of trademarks in bad faith

By judgment published on 14 July (R.G. no. 43968/11), the Business Chamber ”A” of the Court of Milan has recently dealt with the issue of bad faith trademark registration, stipulated in Article 19(2) of the Legislative Decree 30/2005 (Industrial Property Code, “CPI”). The rule confirms that “no trademark registration shall be granted to anyone who has applied for it in bad faith” in agreement with which Article 25(1b) CPI orders that a trademark registered in bad faith is invalid.

Saiba mais em: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=16ee1c1c

 

 

New era, new trademarks law

Over the past few years, like a number of other countries in the Arab world, Libya has experienced a period of dramatic political change.

The transformations in Libya’s political landscape have led to a number of large-scale shifts, including in relation to the operation of government offices and the country’s legislation.

Saiba mais em: http://www.internationallawoffice.com/newsletters/detail

 

 

Sage wins three African software piracy court cases  

Global business management software firm Sage says it has won three software piracy court cases in the Maghreb and Francophone regions in Africa.

Sage, which specialises in the likes of enterprise resource management (ERP) and customer relations management (CRM) software, says three companies in Africa have been “found guilty by a court of law for reproducing and/or using the Sage brand or Sage software illegally.”

Saiba mais em: http://www.itwebafrica.com/enterprise-solutions/505

 

 

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