News

Week’s news headlines – jun. 12th 2015

Copycat Kit Kats on cards as European court of justice rejects trademark bid

Nestlé fails to convince judges to protect chocolate bar’s four-fingered shape after opposition from rival Cadbury

Saiba mais em: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/11/no-legal-ba

 

 

Pfizer apologises for confusion following Lyrica NHS ruling

Pfizer has apologised to UK-based healthcare providers for any confusion or increased workload following the English High Court’s decision on a patent infringement case centring on its epilepsy drug Lyrica (pregabalin).

Saiba mais em: http://www.lifesciencesipreview.com/ne

 

 

Unitary European patent system is a few steps closer
Slowly but surely, a single European patent system — first discussed more than 40 years ago as a way to smooth out the continent’s fragmented intellectual property (IP) protection — is moving towards fruition.

Saiba mais em: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0780e2e

 

 

Antitrust Law and Trademarks

Trademark law is part of a larger body of law known as “unfair competition law.”  In the U.S., we really want everyone to be able to compete freely.  We have decided that, as a general proposition, free competition serves consumers and businesses.  The caveat to this general proposition is that we expect competition to be “fair.”  Not as in “life is not fair” fairness.  Rather, in the sense that we do not want any business to use “dirty tricks” to get an upper hand in the marketplace.

Saiba mais em: http://www.trademarkologist.com/2015/06/antitrust-l

 

 

After ACTA: EU needs new tools to protect EU intellectual property rights

The EU needs better tools to protect EU intellectual property in third countries, say MEPs in a resolution voted on Tuesday. They ask the EU Commission to look into appropriate means and methods to this end. In a separate resolution, also voted on Tuesday, they also advocate assessing and adjusting intra-EU rules to combat online breaches of intellectual property rights (IPRs).

Saiba mais em: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en

 

 

 

Author files case over intellectual property theft

The defendants, author Josef Grech and the director of Dom Communications Ltd, had denied accusations of having plagiarised Joseph Mary Grech’s book

Saiba mais em: http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/538

 

 

Supreme People’s Court published judicial White Paper of Intellectual Property Protection

Supreme People’s Court issued White Paper of Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts (2014) on April 20. According to the White Paper analysis, in 2014, the leading role of the judiciary to protect Intellectual Property was further improved, showing new features of rapid growth in the quantity of cases, improvement in trial quality and efficiency, further promotion of open trial and significant improvement in the trial influence.

Saiba mais em: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.asp

 

 

In essence, it’s a trademark battle

Upmarket jewellery outlet Pandora and clothing giant Truworths were embroiled in a legal tussle in the high court in Pretoria over the Essence trademark.

Saiba mais em: http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/in-essen

 

 

Turkish Constitutional Court continues to cancel provisions of Trademark Decree

Registration applications for trademarks similar to well-known trademarks can no longer be refused on absolute grounds. In the second IP-related cancellation decision in one month, the Turkish Constitutional Court cancelled Article 7/1-(i) of Decree No. 556,On Protection of Trademarks, on May 27, 2015, at the request of the Ankara 3rd Court of Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights (the “IP Court”). Previously, we reported on the cancellation of Article 16/2, which revoked the Turkish Patent Institute’s (“TPI”) power to require those assigning a trademark to assign their similar trademarks in the same portfolio. Our previous alert can be found here. We expect more cancellations of other portions of the Trademark Decree to follow.

Saiba mais em: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f0c

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