Intellectual Property Protection, Trademark News, Trademark Application Comments (0)
One of the factors that contribute to the economic growth of a country, says Bob Winter, is the country’ s ability to protect its intellectual property. In this video, Mr. Winter, who works on the Ethiopia Fine Coffee Initiative at Arnold and Porter’s, explains the legal issues that come with the attempt of Ethiopia to register trademarks for its fine coffees. There are two types of Ethiopian coffee that are especially in need of protection: Yirgacheffe and Harrar.
Being able to trademark these special coffees could mean a lot for the economic growth and economic development of Ethiopia. Watch the video below to get to know the details of this Ethiopean trademark application issue. The video dates back till Spring 2007, so the trademarks might actually have already been granted. To read more about the trademark issue at hand go to www.csrwire.com
Popularity: 80% [?]
Trademark @ March 19, 2008
Copyrights Issues, Trademark Issues Comments (0)
The internet is the place “par excellence” in which trademark law is confusing. Anyone can register a domainname, so who sees to it that no trademark infringements are taking place? Of course, when a big company sues you after you have accidently used their name in your domain, you’re stuffed. But how do you know which names are being trademarked? The online community is, in fact, subject to a number of laws.
In the video below a trademark lawyer explains how careful you should be in registereing a domainname. Like in real life, you can definitely be sued for using a company’s trademark. A good solution is to consult with your national Trademark and Patent Office. For the US the Office’s can be consulted at the official USPTO website.
Popularity: 59% [?]
Trademark @ February 4, 2008
EU Trademarks, US Trademarks, Intellectual Property Protection, Trademark Application Comments (0)
The United States and the European Union both have their special agencies that look after the rights of their respective intellectual properties. Visiting both sites, it becomes apparent- again- that the United States wins big time over the European Union when it comes to transparency and readability of its official papers and statements.
Entering the European Union’s intellectual property protection site, the first thing you want to do is to click away as fast as possible. A load of official papaers of which you already know that they are way too long and unreadable even before you open them (in a special pdf file, which takes ages to load on your laptop).
The United States’ website has a much better ambiance, having sidebars with various subjects that are directed at the different countries. Not only does the US site look much better with regard to the content, also the url is much clearer and easy to remember: www.stopfakes.gov, this in comparison with the EU’s url: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/piracy/index_en.htm.
I propose that the EU website developers take some courses in communication. This would make it a little easier to accept the EU as a lawmaking institution and would also make it easier to gain some knowledge on such essential things as intellectual properties and trademark applications.
Have a look at the official websites and decide for yourself where you would prefer to file your trademark application in terms of complexity and bureaucracy.
www.stopfakes.gov and the EU Single Market
Popularity: 74% [?]
Trademark @ December 17, 2007
Copyrights Issues, Fun with Trademarks Comments (0)
See this very intelligent video, in which the rights of literature characters is being discussed. This is done in a very funny way with molly Bloom, one of the main characters in James Joyce’s Ulysses, trying to protect her character rights.
The distributor of this Trademark Application Blog video is the Wu Ming Foundation.
copyright issues james joyce literature characters molly bloom trademark issuesPopularity: 69% [?]
Trademark @ December 3, 2007
Finally, Apple has settled a long-lasting dispute with Burst.com over some of its iPod technologies. It all started in 2004, when Burst.com asked Apple to license a few of its patents, saying that those were at the core of the iPod. However, in January 2006 Apple sued Burst.com, arguing that the patents were invalid and thus not infringed by them. In April 2006 Burst.com countersued and with success.
Apple will pay Burst.com a random $10 million US dollar, thereby gaining access to Burst.com’s patent portfolio, although part of the portfolio will stay closed for Apple.
This is not the first time that Burst.com wins a lawsuit against a big company. Last year, it settled a similar case with Microsoft, which cost Microsoft $60 million US dollar.
apple burst.com patents patent portfolioPopularity: 70% [?]
Trademark @ November 28, 2007
UK Trademarks, European Trademarks, Trademark Application Comments (1)
In 1994, the Trademark Act caused the British legal trademark approach to fall in line with the general EU Directive regarding trademarks. The Trademark Act thus forced the UK to handle trademark applications in the same way as in the rest of Europe.
It was thanks to this Trademark Act, that recently the UK Registrar of Trademarks has decided that retail services can also register a trademark. The decision was made after two test cases by Debenhams and Dewhurst, who were sponsored by the British Retain Consortium, put forward that retail services could be protected under this law.
Before, retail services were not regarded the same as other service providers, who have been protected by trademark applications since 1986. The goods which were being sold by the retail service company could be protected by trademarks, but never before the service of selling retail was protected.
Registering a trademark makes it possible for retail service providers to protect themselves if another company tries to open a company under the same or very similar name. Previously, case law had held that the purpose of a trade mark was as an indicator of origin of goods or services, and that trading in other people’s goods (eg retailing) did not qualify as such a service.
Find the complete article and more general information on trademarks in the UK at www.ramage.co.uk
Popularity: 72% [?]
Trademark @ November 19, 2007
News, LawSuits, Patent Comments (0)
Google has been sued by an American university and a starting-up business in the US. Boston’s Northeastern University and the company Jarg, whose co-founder is associate professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, accuse Google of using a search engine technology that was developed and patented by them in 1997.
The patent, number 5,694,593, is dated Dec. 2, 1997, and can be viewed by searching the website of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
Getting a lawyer to pursue the suit was quite a challenge, and it took the university a couple of years to find someone willing to engage in this lawsuit against Google. The stolen technology was discovered by a Boston-area lawyer, who thought that Google’s search technology resembled the university’s patented version a little too closely. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial, requires Google to quite infringing the patent and asks for royalty payments and damages.
Read the whole story at www.itworld.com
Popularity: 69% [?]
Trademark @ November 12, 2007
Fun with Trademarks, Trademark Issues Comments (0)
Trademark Issues have even entered the YouTube generation, making it clear that trademark issues are still interesting enough to devote even a video to. Watch this video, which was made by Michael Mozart. Mozart has his own YouTube domain: Jeepers Media, where he talks about the toy industry. In this particular video, Mozart discusses some clear examples of trademark infringements in and on toys.
Popularity: 67% [?]
Trademark @ October 30, 2007
European Trademarks, Intellectual Property Protection, Trademark News Comments (0)
The UK Intellectual Property Office has decided today that it will shift responsibilities for existing trademarks from its own office to the owners of existing trademarks. This means that businesses have to behave more proactively if they want to ensure that their trademarks are not to be infringed.
When a new business or person applies a trademark to the UK IP Office, the Office will not defend a trademark that was registered earlier and that will be conflicted by the new trademark. In order to protect an already existing trademark, owners of trademarks will receive notice from the UK IP Office whenever someone applies for a trademark that might cause conflict with the existing trademark. The owner of the existing trademark can then legally oppose the application of the new, conflicting trademark.
The UK IP Office has decided to this change in legislation because it wishes to only examine and grant trademarks on absolute grounds. That means, it will only weigh applications of trademarks on their suitability and distinctiveness for application.
The new legislation will bring the UK trademark procedures more in line with the European Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), which is based in Alicante, Spain. The OHIM grants European Community Trademarks that apply to the whole European Union.
Source of this article: “Trademark Onus Put on Owners”, Nikki Tait, Financial Times, 1 October 2007
Read more about the UK IP Office at their official Website: www.ipo.gov.uk
cause conflict community trademarks european community european office financial times new business new legislation registered trademarks trademark ownersPopularity: 100% [?]
Trademark @ October 1, 2007
Intellectual Property Protection, Trademark Application Comments (0)
A project funded by the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN) and led by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), makes it simpler for medical researchers in developing countries to patent or trademark their research.
The three year project, which started in 2004, has developed a model to empower research institutes in developing countries in their attempt to manage their intellectual property (IP) assets. The project brought together 11 partner institutions from Switzerland, Columbia and Central Africa. Together, these institutions worked on enhancing their capacities to patent their research, and thus strengthen their positions in the international medical field. Patents and trademarks often mean larger revenues, revenues that are very important for the development of medical research.
Researchers at the partner institutions from Columbia, Switzerland and Central Africa prepared trainings and classes on trademark application procedures and patent handling. Two “IP-hubs” were created in Columbia and Central Africa, which will boost the local knowledge of the handling of Intellectual Property of medical research. The IP hubs use local researchers, lawyers and managers to support the local research and development (R&D) networks. The support of the R&D networks and research institutions started in January 2007. The IP Hubs promise to become highly successful in empowering local researchers in developing countries with regard to protecting their trademarks and patents.
Mr. Randall Harbour, Executive Secretary of the GIAN, said, “It is to be expected that in the middle and long-term the implementation of the WIPO-GIAN model by developing countries will facilitate local development, production and distribution of medicines based on both conventional approaches and traditional medicine. In addition to supporting researchers from developing countries with patent applications, the “IP Hubs” can assist them in establishing well thought-out and fair legal frameworks with research institutions in industrialized countries.”
The Project is called: “Research Networks and Intellectual Property: A Model for Supporting Developing Country Researchers in Creating, Owning and Exploiting Health Research Results”.
Read the full story at: www.wipo.int
Popularity: 68% [?]
Trademark @ September 26, 2007