HERE are just some of the benefits only a registered trademark can bring your business.
1. The right to use your name, logo, slogan or other trademark
Only a registered trademark provides the owner with the right to use their trademark, on the goods or services they provide.
Because of this, it is recommended you conduct a trademark search before registering a new business or company name, to help ensure the new name is not infringing an existing trademark, and to determine whether you will be able to achieve exclusive rights to use the name.
2. The right to stop others using your...
Nestle has won a trademark lawsuit against Cadbury over their rights to KitKat chocolate bar’s four-fingered and three-dimensional shape.
KitKat’s shape was registered by Nestle in 2006. Cadbury applied to invalidate the registration shortly thereafter, claiming that a trait as general as a product’s shape could not be trademarked, The Huff Post reports.
In addition to Cadbury’s famous Creme Eggs, the company sells KitKat-like products, such as Crispello, a chocolate bar with a “creamy centre, wrapped in a delicate crispy shell, covered with a delicious layer of Cadbury chocolate.”
Ac...
In 2011, the total number of patent applications in India was estimated to be 37,000, according to controller general of patents, designs and trade marks, ministry of commerce and industry data. In 2012, it around 34,000.
Technology companies both international and Indian are leading the charge of the patent brigade. Take the case of General Electric. In 2011, 400 patent applications were filed globally that have contributions from General Electric India. “We have 4,500 scientists and engineers to think creatively and contribute solving problems and work with teams outside India,” Gopichan...
For centuries, Indian housewives have used homemade remedies based on cow\'s milk to cure constipation -- but in 2009 Swiss giant Nestle applied for a patent to protect a similar product of its own.
Earlier this year, India successfully fought off Nestle\'s attempt at the European Patent Office (EPO) to secure a patent, saying that using cow\'s milk as a laxative was mentioned in ancient texts and was therefore not new.
Indian government officials are fighting hundreds of other cases to try to protect the country\'s \"genetic heritage\", a topic high on the agenda at the UN\'s Convention on ...
When the government of India revoked U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc.’s local patent for its cancer drug Sutent last week, it marked yet another loss for Big Pharma in an escalating patent war between multinational pharmaceutical companies and the governments of developing nations.
The decision by the country’s patent authority—the Patent Controller of India—to reverse a 2007 decision granting patent protection on the drug, which is used to treat kidney cancer, comes on the heels of other rulings in which some of the world’s largest drug makers have seen their patents on expensive (and potential...
MUMBAI: Hearing a copyright violation case filed by producers of \'Society Tea\' brand, the Bombay High Court has temporarily restrained S K Food Products from selling or passing off its product under trade mark \'Sahil\', which it felt appears deceptively similar to that of the plaintiff.
Observing that a prima facie case of copyright infringement had been made out, Justice S J Kathawala passed an ad-interim order on October 3 granting interim relief to M/s Hansmukhrai & Co, producers of \'Society Tea\' against the defendants.
\"A look at the wrapper/pouch/packet of the defendant supp...
NEW DELHI: US drug giant Pfizer said Friday it will appeal against an Indian ruling overturning a patent for a cancer drug, saying the decision raises questions about intellectual property protection in India.
Indian generics heavyweight Cipla opposed the granting of the domestic patent for Pfizer\'s Sutent, which is used to combat liver and kidney cancer.
The patent office\'s decision went to the heart of India\'s patent act, which says a patent cannot be granted for a drug unless changes make it significantly more effective and innovative.
\"The patentee (Pfizer) has miserably fai...
INTA Provides a free Downloadable Power Point Presentation to educate Client & Colleague the link is
http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/Pages/Presentations.aspx
Source:- www.inta.org...
The Delhi High Court today held that Indian pharmaceutical major Cipla has not infringed upon the patent right of Swiss drug company F Hoffman La-Roche on a cancer drug.
Justice Manmohan Singh said Roche\'s patented drug Erlotinib Hydrochloride, promoted under the brand TARCEVA is also valid like Cipla\'s cancer drug promoted under the trade name ERLOCIP.
The decision came on a petition filed by Roche accusing Cipla of manufacturing and marketing the cancer drug under the trade name ERLOCIP which it claimed was the generic version of its patented drug Erlotinib Hydrochloride, promoted ...
The patent-infringement suit filed by Swiss drugmaker Hoffman La Roche against local drug company Intas, regarding the former\'s lung-cancer drug erlotinib, has been dismissed by the Madras High Court.
The suit filed by Roche has been dismissed by the Madras HC due to the lack of jurisdiction, Mr A. Mohan, advocate at the Madras HC, confirmed to Business Line. Mr Mohan, from intellectual property firm Mohan Associates, handled the case for Intas.
Roche had filed a case against Intas to stop the sale of erlotinib, on the basis of a single sale from a retail chemist in Chennai, he said. In...
The Madras High Court today restrained GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare Ltd (GSK), the maker of the Horlicks brand, from manufacturing, selling and advertising Horlicks Nutribic brand of biscuits for trademark and copyright violations of Britannia NutriChoice Oats biscuits.
The interim order was in response to a petition — a copy of which is available with Business Standard — filed by Britannia Industries Ltd, in which the company alleged GSK’s Horlicks Nutribic, launched on August 20, was a “slavish copy” of Britannia’s NutriChoice Oats.Immediately after the launch of Horlicks Nutribic,...
In an ongoing legal dispute between India TV and Yash Raj Films, the Division Bench of Delhi High Court
consisting of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Manmohan Singh has delivered a breakthrough judgment in favor of India TV .
The high court today held that small amounts of usage of songs in a programme by India TV does not amount to copyright infringement.
The high court was dealing with a dispute involving India TV and Yashraj Films where the High Court has said that use of five words
of the song ‘Kajrare’, “Mera Chen vain sab ujhda” in a promo for a consumer affairs p...
The difference between a design patent and a utility patent is that a design patent protects the ornamental design, configuration, improved decorative appearance, or shape of an invention. This patent is appropriate when the basic product already exists in the marketplace and is not being improved upon in function but only in style. For example, designer eyeglass frames, the original Coca-Cola bottles, and \"Pet Rocks\" would have all been protected with design patents. A U.S. design patent lasts for 14 years.
A utility patent protects any new invention or functional improvements on existin...
NEW DELHI—Novartis AG NOVN.VX -0.51% goes to India\'s Supreme Court on Wednesday to seek patent protection for its blockbuster cancer drug Glivec in a case that could deliver far-reaching ramifications for multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in India.
The Swiss company\'s legal fight, which began after India rejected its application for a patent six years ago, is the most prominent of several high-stakes drug-patent battles that will determine how much protection foreign companies can get from Indian competitors that make lower-cost, generic versions of their products.Foreign p...
The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), constituted by the union commerce ministry in the year 2003 to hear appeals against the decisions of the Registrar under the Trade Marks Act, will start hearing the German drug major Bayer\'s appeal against the grant of compulsory license on its anti-cancer drug Nexavar on August 21.
After the Indian Patent Controller issued the first-ever compulsory licence (CL) in March this year to an Indian generic drug manufacturer to manufacture the Bayer\'s patented anti-cancer drug sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar), the German drug major had filed an appe...
NEW DELHI: The government is apprehensive that the Indian drug companies\' strategy of launching generic version of patented drugs could trigger retaliation from overseas countries that may hit the country\'s ambitious drug export plans.
\"If MNCs patents are not protected, then their governments can also put up non-tariff barriers to restrict entry of Indian drugs,\" a government official, familiar with the development said.
India exported medicines worth $13.2 billion last fiscal and the government plans to double it to $25 billion by March 2014. \"We are concerned that our exports w...
New Delhi: India’s effort to have a comprehensive intellectual property rights (IPR) strategy seems to be getting off the ground, with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) circulating the first draft of this for an inter-ministerial consultation process.
According to experts, India has been under international pressure, especially from the US, to put in place a robust IPR regime that will not only make multinationals operating in the country more comfortable about their patents but will also boost domestic innovation.A senior DIPP official said that recently several laws...
Get ready for “rubberbanding.” That’s the way the screen on an iPad or iPhone seems to bounce when you scroll to the bottom of a file -- and it’s among the terms jurors must understand as Apple Inc. (AAPL) (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. face off in a patent trial this week.
Apple has become the most valuable company by creating products that stand out for design and ease of use, stemming from scores of smaller innovations, such as rubberbanding, rather than epic underlying technology breakthroughs.
In the trial in federal court in San Jose, California, Apple will try to prove to juro...
Bayer has successfully enforced its Nativo trademark against Viet Duc Ltd., Tan Hiep Town, Tan Hiep District, Kien Giang province, Vietnam.Under their own trademark Natido, Viet Duc sold crop protection products which looked very similar to Bayer CropScience´s Nativo rice fungicide. Infringed products have to be withdrawn from the market and will be destroyed. Furthermore, Viet Duc is no longer allowed to use the Natido brand name, and was sentenced to a fine.
“Nativo is a very strong brand in Vietnam, and our customers associate our brand with high quality and efficacy,” Torsten Velden, Ba...
So you’ve registered a trade mark, but now what? Do you fully understand your rights relating to the trade mark and how you can or cannot use it?
There are many benefits of registering a trade mark for your business name. A registered trade mark comes with several rights regarding its use that you don’t get with an unregistered business name. These include:
• The right to use your trade mark for the goods and/or services you nominated.
• The right to authorise others to use the trade mark for those goods/services (for example, in a licensing arrangement).
• The right to instigate i...
The Indian Copyright Act was first passed in 1957. A few amendments were made in 1983 & in 1984. However keeping in view with the latest developments in the field of technology, especially in the field of computers and digital technologies. The new amendment Act called the
Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1994 (38 of 1994) was passed and this made Indian Copyright Law is one of the toughest in the world. This included the definition of \"Computer Program\" also in its ambit. It clearly explains the rights of Copyright holder, position on rentals of software, the rights of the user to make backu...
Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any Licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the license). Infringement may occur when one party, the \"infringer\", uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party,
in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers. An owner of a trademark may commence legal proceedings against a party which infringes i...
In India, trademark rights arise through use as a trademark. There is no legal requirement to register a trademark. However, there are multiple benefits to having a trademark registered with the Indian Trade Marks Registry.
Trademark registration is perhaps the most important piece of a company’s intellectual Property protection program. Without trademark registration, a company relies solely Upon common law rights in the geographic area in which it uses the trademark. Most Significantly, without registration, a latecomer may register a mark identical or similar to the company’...
1. SEARCH:
It is recommended to conduct a Trademark availability search in order to check if any similar Trademark has been filed in India, which may oppose your registration. The cost of the search is generally quite insignificant in comparison to the costs of re-branding if there is difficulty in using the Trademark because it infringes the right of others.
2. FILING:
A Trademark application is filed with Trademark office. Now the Trademark application can be filed for more than one class of goods in one application. An application with priority rights shall be filed within 6 mont...
PUNE: When Pune\'s single-store restaurant Burger King got a legal notice in 2008, it never anticipated a court battle with the world\'s second largest hamburger chain running for years.
Restrained by a local court from using Burger King as its name, the 1992-founded restaurant has now appealed in the Bombay High Court for relief against the order in a suit filed by Florida-based Burger King Holdings, Inc or BK. Incomparable on any parameter, their battle is for the name \'Burger King\', which BK holds a trademark on, while it\'s the identity of this little eatery since the pre-internet era....
or years, we\'ve talked about just how preposterous it is that various brands claim filmmakers and other content creators can\'t show their logos without permission. There are even lawyers who specialize in watching movies to make sure no brands appear without a license. Seriously. And this trademark madness extends to other areas as well. A few years ago, we wrote about a crazy case, involving the University of Alabama suing an artist named Daniel Moore (a huge fan of the school\'s football team) who regularly did paintings of great moments in the football team\'s history. The case was slight...
A decision handed down by the Cape High Court on Wednesday 13 June 2012 that grapes bearing almost the identical registered mark to wine would not cause confusion, sets a precedent and should be of great concern to the wine industry. The Court held that grapes and wine are not \"similar goods\" in a trademark sense.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Trademarks classes
Trademarks may be filed in one or more of 45 classes of goods and services. Wine itself falls in class 33, while wine grapes (along with other fruit) fall in class 31. Given that confusion due to use of the same or similar mark...
Imagine investing years of work developing and marketing a wine brand, and then being accused of infringing a deep-pocketed company’s trademark. It would stop you dead in your tracks. To minimize the risk of such claims, wineries regularly engage attorneys to review and register their brand names and logo designs. But trademark law can cover more than just the text and drawings found on a wine label. Wineries should pay equal attention to trademark law in making overall bottle design decisions.
Large alcohol companies have aggressively defended trademarks covering package design. Take fo...
How many of you can close your eyes and picture the exact shade of green that Starbucks uses on its mugs? Or the exact color that adorns the box of a Barbie doll? These colors are a crucial part of some major brands nowadays — so it\'s not surprising that companies have started to trademark them, to prevent competitors from using them.
Find out how certain very specific colors have become corporate property.
T-Mobile owns a particular vibration of photons that we call magenta. Barbie doll packages, and only Barbie doll packages, can be adorned with a particular shade of cloying pink. We ...
Can anyone in India, the home of Ayurveda, claim exclusive intellectual property rights over the word ‘Ayur\' for selling a product? Or contend that ‘Ayur,\' a word derived from ‘Ayush\' (life), is an ‘invented word\' that can be used as a trade mark?
The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has ruled that it cannot be done and directed the removal of the word ‘Ayur,\' registered in the name of Three-N-Products (P) Ltd., New Delhi, from the trade marks registry.
In its order delivered on Friday, the IPAB said: “Ayur is a generic word; to hoard it as ‘mine-own-forever\' is not in ...
New Delhi: Song writers, artistes and performers can now claim royalty for their creations as the Parliament has approved a law to provide the much-delayed justice to them.
The Copyright Act (Amendment) Bill, 2012 was passed by the Lok Sabha, which witnessed unusual unanimity on the matter with members from all parties supporting the measure for creative artistes whose benefits are cornered by producers.
The bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha on May 17, declares authors as owners of the copyright, which cannot be assigned to the producers as was the practice till now.
Noting that artiste...
NEW DELHI: The Copyright Amendment Bill, which had been deferred earlier because of differences between the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Human Resource Development Ministry, has finally been cleared by the Union Cabinet.
It is understood that the two Ministries in their ‘fine tuning’ exercise have agreed to restore the provision of statutory licensing as proposed earlier in 2010.
The amendments to the Copyright Act 1958 aim at according \'unassignable rights\' to \'creative artists\' such as lyricists, playback singers, music directors, film directors and dialogue writers wh...
New Delhi: Imports of goods protected by patent or trademarks are permitted even without authorisation of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) holder, according to the Finance Ministry.
The clarification was given in the backdrop the dispute between global personal computer maker Dell and traders who were sought to be stopped by the US based company which claimed the shipment would lead to infringement of its IPR.
The directive from the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) follows representations from the trade seeking clarity on the issue which is also referred to as \"parallel ...
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple won dismissal of Proview Electronics\'s California lawsuit seeking to block it from using the iPad name, according to a copy of the court order obtained by Bloomberg News.
Proview, based in Taiwan, has sought to block shipments of Apple\'s iPad tablet computer in and out of China. In the California case, filed in state court in San Jose, Proview claimed a December 2009 agreement to sell iPad trademarks to an Apple unit called IP Application Development should be canceled. The Apple unit made \"false\" statements to Proview in correspondence before the agreement, accord...
India has protested against the United States decision to place it on a watch list of a dozen countries it alleges have the worst record of preventing the theft of copyrighted material and other intellectual property.
In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said a recent World Trade Organisation review found the country to be in compliance with all regulations, including the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, which lays down minimum standards all member-states must adhere to.
The exchange came ev...
BANGALORE—Germany\'s Bayer AG BAYRY -3.06% has appealed against the grant of a compulsory license by India\'s patent authority to a local generic drug producer for its kidney- and liver-cancer medicine, Nexavar.
Citing the high cost of the cancer drug, India\'s patent authority had in March forced Bayer to grant a compulsory license to Hyderabad, south India-based Natco Pharma Ltd. 524816.BY -5.63% to sell a cheaper copy of Nexavar to ensure patients have access to the potentially life-saving medicine.
Bayer filed its appeal at the country\'s Intellectual Property Appellate Board on Frid...
MUMBAI, India, May 4 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (1716/CHE/2010) filed by Valagam Rajagopal Raghunathan, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on June 21, 2010 for a \'reactive power management for wind turbine applications.\'
The application for the patent - which was invented by Valagam Rajagopal Raghunathan, India - was published on April 27 under journal no. 17/2012. According to the abstract released by the Intellectual Property India: \"This invention is mainly focused on wind power generation to be setup in remote places where power grid is not available and also t...
Venus Remedies Limited, a leading research based global pharmaceutical company, has come up with a platform technology called Drug -Protein-Polymer- Conjugate (DPPC). DPPC concept by Venus is a novel, patent protected technology, which will help in alleviating cancer and receptor diseases by a specific and selective targeting.
A triple conjugate therapy wherein protein and drug are conjugated with a polymer will help to reduce the amount of drug to be used to kill the tumour cells in cancers and other receptor diseases. There is reduced chemotherapy associated side effects especially ...
MANNHEIM: A German court ruled on Wednesday that Microsoft infringed Motorola Mobility\'s patents in making its popular Xbox gaming consoles. Judge Holger Kircher said Microsoft breached an agreement with Motorola, which is in the process of being bought by Google , by applying certain video-compression software in products including Windows 7 and the Xbox 360 videogame console.
In the ruling, the judge ordered Microsoft to remove its popular game console as well as its Windows 7 operating system software from the German market.
The ruling followed a similar decision last week when a j...
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (AP) — Merck & Company says it won two patent infringement lawsuits against Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a leading generic drug maker, which is seeking to make generic versions of Merck’s lucrative cholesterol pills, Zetia and Vytorin. Judge Jose L. Linares of Federal District Court in Newark ruled on Friday against Mylan, Merck said in a statement.
Both lawsuits concern the patent for ezetimibe, Zetia’s active ingredient and a part of Vytorin, which also includes generic Zocor. That is an older Merck cholesterol pill that works differently.
The judge ruled the patent,...
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat High Court has granted a temporary relief to Troikaa Pharmaceutical, restraining two pharma companies from making and selling the patented versions of diclofenac injection. The Ahmedabad-based company had patented diclofenac injection and sells it under the brand name Dynapar AQ.
The court will now examine the merit of the case and decide if the products infringed upon Troikaa\'s flagship product. As per industry estimates, Troikaa earns about 50% of its revenues from Dynapar.
Source;- Google News...
Pfizer Inc.\'s PFE -0.52% first-quarter profit declined 19% as sales of its top product, the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, tumbled 71% in the U.S. amid competition from generic copies. The New York-based drug maker also lowered its forecast for full-year 2012 earnings and revenue to reflect last week\'s agreement to sell its nutrition unit to Nestlé for $11.85 billion cash. The deal is expected to close by the first half of 2013, and Pfizer will treat the business as a discontinued operation for accounting purposes until then.
The sale of the nutrition unit, which makes baby formula, i...
Hyderabad: In commemoration of World IP day, the Motion Picture Dist. Association (MPDA- India) joined the FICCI- IPR division, U.S. Consulate General Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce and the American Center, New Delhi to raise awareness about intellectual property and increase understanding of how protecting IP rights helps promote creativity and innovation across the country.
To mark the day, FICCI’s IPR division in association with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Intellectual Property Office in New Delhi, held...
NEW DELHI: The Indian government has set up a sectoral council to prepare national intellectual property rights strategy with a view to incentivise innovation, a senior official said Thursday.
Saurabh Chandra, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), said the DIPP has set up the council on intellectual property rights with the objective of preparing a national strategy that incentivises innovation and allows diffusion of new technologies leading to efficiency gains for the economy.
\"Unless there is an effective rights system, there would always be a danger of u...
Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks launches new version of IPAIRS 2.0 http://124.124.193.245/patentsearch/search/index.aspx
Source:-www.ipindia.nic.in...
HELSINKI: Nokia Oyj lost a ruling in a German court today in a patent lawsuit brought by IPCom GmbH & Co.
The Regional Court of Mannheim made the judgment public today. Nokia hadn\'t received a copy of the ruling and couldn\'t immediately comment, Mark Durrant, a spokesman for the Espoo, Finland-based company, said.
IPCom, based in Pullach, Germany, is seeking to force Nokia to pay royalties for a portfolio of mobile-technology patents it acquired from Robert Bosch GmbH in 2007.
The two companies are entangled in patent litigation across Europe. The ruling concerns patent DE 199 10...
LAUSANNE: Nestle has won a case against rivals, including Sara Lee, at the European Patent Office (EPO) concerning its fast-growing Nespresso coffee machines and capsules.
\"It is a positive decision for Nespresso so we are very satisfied,\" Nespresso chief executive Richard Girardot told journalists at Nestle\'s annual shareholders meeting.
Source:- Google News...
(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in favor of a generic drugmaker in a case over how companies can fight brand-name rivals in an effort to get their cheaper medicines to market.
The high court unanimously ruled that the generics company, Caraco Pharmaceuticals, could sue a brand-name drugmaker to get it to narrow its patent description with the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA uses this information to decide whether to approve a generic \"copycat\" version of a medicine before the patent has expired.
Caraco, a unit of India\'s Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, argu...
Indian drugmaker Piramal Healthcare has agreed to buy a research and development portfolio from Bayer AG, the company said, in a deal that gives Piramal rights to florbetaben, a possible Alzheimer treatment.
Florbetaben, which is in the final stages of clinical trials, works by detecting symptoms in probable sufferers of Alzheimer\'s, and is expected to allow earlier detection and specific treatment of the disease, Piramal said in a statement.Florbetaben is racing with similar Alzheimer\'s imaging agents from global pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Co, Pfizer Inc and General E...
NEW DELHI: New Delhi has demanded that the European Union lift restrictions on flow of sophisticated outsourcing business to India by designating it as a data secure country.
India is among the countries not considered data secure by the EU. This prevents flow of sensitive data, such as patient information for telemedicine, to India under data protection laws in the EU. The issue has been taken up by New Delhi in the bilateral free trade agreement being negotiated, which includes an extensive chapter on free flow of services.
\"Recognition as a data secure country is vital for India to...
the trademark \"JIU\" of Weifang Hengyuan Oil Pump and Nozzle Co., Ltd., a subsidiary company wholly owned by Xinde Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (OTCBB: WTFS), was honored with the title of Shandong Famous Trademark. The granting of such an honor represents a comprehensive recognition by Shandong Provincial Bureau of Industry and Commerce of Xinde\'s market, quality, efficiency and development and fully proves the market acceptance of Xinde and \"JIU\" brand products, simultaneously improving the company\'s intangible assets and bolstering its ability to compete in the increasingly fierce ...
MUMBAI, India, April 11 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (2363/DEL/2011) filed by Corning Inc., New York, U.S., on Aug. 19, 2011 for a \'method and apparatus for homogenizing a glass melt.\'
The application for the patent - which was invented by Hojong Kim and Daniel A. Nolet, both of U.S. - was published on March 9 under journal no. 10/2012. According to the abstract released by the Intellectual Property India: \"The present invention is directed toward a method of reducing contamination of a glass melt in a stirring apparatus by an oxide material. The oxide ...
Google Inc. GOOG -0.63% suffered its second legal setback in two weeks as a U.S. appeals court on Monday vacated part of an earlier court decision dismissing a trademark-infringement lawsuit filed against the Internet-search company.
A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., breathed new life into a case filed by language-training software maker Rosetta Stone Inc. RST +0.52% by unanimously ruling that a lower court erred in dismissing claims that Google had infringed on its trademarks and diluted their value.
In 2010 the Virginia-based lower court dismi...
Patent protection in India would help drive future research initiatives. Investments in research is a high risk venture and only a sound patent protection will attract the west to invest in Asia, said Nobel Laureate Kurt Wuthrich, professor, structural biology, Scripps Research Institute, USA and professor, structural genomics ETH, Zurich.
India’s biopharma growth is impressive, but the country needs to ensure that it does not lose out to China which is sound and strong on patents and intellectual property rights. There is need to intensify patent laws included in the WTO’s agreement on int...
Russia has sought detailed information from India on complaints over alleged dilution of the speciality tag for Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiris teas.
The speciality tag known as Geographical Indication (GI) is given to products made or originating from a specific region as recognition of its unique qualities attributable to that particular region.
Several Indian tea makers had lodged complaints against alleged dilution of GIs of Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiris teas through “mixing of these teas with other varieties” in Russia.
The issue was taken up at an India-Russia bilateral meeting ...
Interesting weekend piece by AP business writer Mae Anderson, who opines that Apple’s iPad is on the verge of being ‘genericized’ – i.e. the brand name is now nearly synonymous to the ‘tablet computer’ class of products as a whole – joining the likes of Kleenex, Photoshop, Xerox, Rollerblade, Google, Yo-Yo and Band-Aid.
It’s a valid argument, although it’s of course impossible to pinpoint when such a brand ‘genericization’ occurs exactly.
I do know from hanging around with people who aren’t as embedded in the tech industry as I am that Apple’s iPod and iPhone have reached that very statu...
MONTREAL - Quebec-based juice maker Lassonde Industries Inc. has settled a long-standing legal battle over the use of its Oasis brand name after a social media campaign threatened a boycott of its products.
\"Lassonde has listened to the consumers and has decided to take a positive step in reaction to their remarks,\" the company said in a statement Sunday.
Based in Rougemont, Que., Lassonde (TSX:LAS.A) announced that it would compensate Deborah Kudzman, owner of the maker of Olivia\'s Oasis line of beauty products, for her legal expenses in the seven-year legal dispute.
\"We are happy that...
India-based vertically integrated textile group - Malwa has been granted a Japanese patent (No - 4750555) for Indigo Wool™ - a new production technique that allows consistent commercial production of Indigo dyed wool and its blends.
This new breakthrough in wool products uses unique modern technology and advanced indigo dyestuffs.
Earlier, the Malwa Group had bagged an Indian patent for Indigo Wool™ and is also on its way to acquire a US patent. Malwa developed the process in close cooperation with Australia-based ‘The Woolmark Company’.
With its easy-care machine washable and tumbl...
WASHINGTON: A US appeals court showed few signs that it was prepared to support a request by Apple Inc to block immediately the sale of some Samsung Electronics smartphones and tablets.
In a high-stakes patent dispute, the court heard arguments about whether a federal trial judge acted correctly in December when she ruled that Apple failed to provide enough evidence to support an injunction of Samsung\'s Galaxy product line.
Source:- Google News...
Multinational pharma companies operating in India are “disappointed” with some recent developments in the healthcare sector. Ranjit Shahani, vice-chairman and MD of Novartis India and president of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), the representative body of MNC pharma firms, spoke to George Mathew on the issue of intellectual property rights and public health. Excerpts:
What’s your opinion on the recent order on compulsory licencing to Natco Pharma? Do you see more Indian companies using this route for generic version of patented drugs?
We believe compulsory lic...
While not as well known to the public as patents, trademarks are another valuable form of intellectual property. Trademarks identify your product or your services in commerce. This identification is key to the many entrepreneurs who have created an new product or service.
Trademarks can consist of names, words or images (and, in rare cases, colors and sounds) that serve to identify a company as a source of goods and services in the eyes of consumers. A trademark is linked to the goodwill of a business, and is protected under law from infringement by other confusingly similar marks. Trademarks...
The folks over at Fusible have discovered that Samsung has filed a trademark with the US PTO for three new names: Galaxy Sire, Galaxy Perx, and Galaxy Lift. While we don\'t have any details yet, we do know that we\'re looking at phones and not tablets - the trademarks were filed under the \"Mobile phones; Smartphones\" category.
Given the names, I\'d guess we\'re looking at carrier-branded versions of the same device.
Source:- Google News...
After a 5 month long wait, the Patent Office at Chennai dispatched the information to an RTI application filed by me on November 01, 2011 asking for a photocopy of the entire case file of Novartis AG\'s patent application on the anti-cancer drug, Glivec. The docket runs over 2500 pages. The complete patent specification filed on July 17, 1998 can be accessed from here.
Other files include First Examiner’s comments on patent specification, documents relating to grant of Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMR), various forms and draft submissions before the Controller during the pre-grant stage. ...
After debuting on the New York Stock Exchange last week with a huge pop in stock value, mobile ad network Millennial Media is now facing potential legal trouble from another mobile ad player. The company is facing a patent lawsuit by mobile marketing service, Augme Technologies. We’ve embedded the lawsuit below.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware, says that the patents in question are all generally relating to “systems and methods for providing targeted content over the Internet.” From the patent lawsuit: “The ’721, the ’636, and the ’691 Patents are generally directed to the manner i...
Facebook Inc., operator of the world’s biggest social-networking site, accused Yahoo! Inc. of infringing 10 patents through its home page and Flickr photo- sharing service and in ads displayed throughout its site.
Facebook, which was sued by Yahoo for patent infringement last month, made the counterclaims in a federal court filing in San Francisco. Facebook denied stealing Yahoo’s technology, saying its rival’s patents are either invalid or its claims legally barred and the lawsuit should be dismissed.
“While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo’s sh...
Germany\'s specialized court system, where cases are ruled on relatively quickly and it can be easier than in other countries to get an injunction, is increasingly leading technology companies to file patent lawsuits there, say patent law specialists.
Motorola sued Microsoft over patents it has on the H.264 video standard, which led Microsoft to move its European distribution center from Germany to the Netherlands even before the German court of Mannheim ruled in the case. Also, Samsung and Apple are involved in German patent lawsuits, involving a range of technology patents, and Apple and ...
MUMBAI, India, April 6 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (1685/MUMNP/2011) filed by Dominique Valeri, Paris, on Aug. 12, 2011 for a \'food additive composition as an agent for reducing the adhesion of dental biofilms in sweetened products.\'
The application for the patent - which was invented by Dominique Valeri, Paris, France - was published on March 9 under journal no. 10/2012. According to the abstract released by the Intellectual Property India: \"The present invention relates to a food additive composition to be added to sugar or sweetened products conta...
The MGM roaring lion is sleeping easier these days - the Canadian Intellectual Property Office is allowing companies to register and protect \"sound marks.\"
It was a 20-year fight for the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer symbol, but it has led to a dramatic change in our trademark policy.
Now the Green Giant\'s \"ho-ho-ho,\" LucasFilm\'s THX steam engine, Yahoo\'s yodel, and the Pillsbury doughboy\'s giggle can be protected from those who would mimic them in Canada.
\"D\'oh!\" as Homer Simpson would say - and that can be trademarked too!
If you really want to waste some time, try checki...
A Chinese court rejected a creditor’s application to liquidate Proview Technology (Shenzhen) Co., allowing the failed display maker to pursue its legal fight against Apple over the iPad trademark in China.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled against Fubon Insurance’s bid to liquidate Proview, Roger Xie, a lawyer for Proview, said by phone today. The decision was released to litigants on March 31, he said.
The same Chinese court ruled in November that Proview owned the iPad trademark in China, saying Apple’s 2009 contract to acquire rights to the name was invalid. The...
Chennai,Mar29 (PTI) Madras High Court today restrained internet providers, including public sector BSNL and unknown persons,from infringing copyright of the producer in Dhanush starrer \'3\' by communicating or duplicating or downloading and uploading it in any manner without a proper licence. The film is scheduled for release on March 30. Granting the interim injunction on a civil suit by R K Productions Private Limited, producer of the film, Justice KBK Vasuki ordered notice to the respondents and posted the application for further hearing on April 18. The Judge also permitted the producer t...
JAIPUR: A nine-year-old wheelchair-ridden boy suffering from a rare genetic disease has set an exemplary example by getting a patent for his invention of six-player circular chess here.
Despite suffering from duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive degenerative disorder of muscle tissue which affects only males, Hridayeshwar Singh Bhati - a class-IV student of Delhi Public School - has made an innovative version of circular chess for two, three, four and six players.
\"So far, four-player circular chess was available. Hridayeshwar is the youngest disabled person in the world to get ...
Your small business\' identity means a lot to your bottom line. But when another entity infringes on your trademark, it may not always make good business sense to pursue a legal enforcement action.
Trademark enforcement actions can be costly, and may not be worth the potential benefits, one trademark expert writes for Inc. magazine. Suing for trademark infringement may also be damaging to your reputation in some cases.
Here are some real-world examples of when trademark enforcement actions may not be worth your while:
Too Costly. A simple cease-and-desist notice can oftentimes be chea...
Ideal Cures, a company specialising in film coating compositions on tablets, pellets and granules for the pharma, health and dietary supplement industry, has secured a US patent for an innovation, claimed as both cost-effective and non-toxic.
Ideal Cures Pvt. Ltd. founded and based in Mumbai announced on March 27th receiving of US Patent Number 8,123,849, relating to aqueous film coating composition based on sodium alginate for application in pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical - tablets, caplets, pellets and granules. Inventive composition provides elegant glossy prompt release coating which ...
MUMBAI: About five years after dragging Antakshari show producer Gajendra Singh and Star (India) TV to the Bombay high court, Zee TV on Monday withdrew its copyright violation suit against them. A lawyer from representing Zee TV informed the court that his client wished to withdraw the suit. In October 2007, the suit had resulted in an interim order against Star TV and Singh.
Advocate Hemlata Marathe who appeared for Gajendra said, \"There is no settlement between Zee and Singh.\" But sources in the industry said that it is likely that the two may work together soon.
Zee had taken Sing...
DVR service and set-top box company TiVo has filed a lawsuit today against Motorola Mobility and Time Warner Cable, according to SEC documents.
In the suit, TiVo claims that the two companies are infringing on three of its patents, including patents for “multimedia time warping system,” “system for time shifting multimedia content streams,” and “method and apparatus implementing random access and time-based functions on a continuous stream of formatted digital data.” If these descriptions seem like nonsense, you are not alone. Many lawyers and judges have logged many hours trying to deciphe...
ISELIN, N.J., March 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Track Innovations
Ltd. (\"OTI\") (Nasdaq:OTIV) today announced the filing of a patent
infringement lawsuit alleging that T-Mobile USA, Inc. sells Near Field
Communication (NFC) enabled phones that infringe OTI\'s U.S. Patent No.
6,045,043. NFC technology enables contactless payments with mobile
phones, loyalty programs, data mining, and other applications. The
lawsuit is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York, Case No. 12-CV-2224.
This patent is part of OTI\'s extensive intellectual propert...
With respect to safeguarding of public interest and to ensure availability of life saving drugs at affordable prices, Patent office informed that they may certainly consider accepting Compulsory Licence (CL) applications in future also, if circumstances demand so. However, Chaitanya Prasad who recently took over the position of controller general of patents stressed that granting of CL will completely depend on the demand of the drug in the country and most importantly the affordability.
This announcement comes in the wake of granting of country\'s first Compulsory Licence recently by the p...
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted US Patent No. 8,133,723, covering Inovio Pharmaceuticals\' SynCon universal vaccine related to H1N1 influenza.
The patent granted to the Trustees of The University of Pennsylvania has been licensed exclusively to Inovio under its existing license agreement with the university. The patent includes claims that cover the synthetic consensus H1 antigen and DNA constructs and vaccines that include this antigen, including universal influenza vaccine INO-3510. This patent also covers methods of treating a patient using the SynCon un...
Reuters) - The Supreme Court set aside on Monday a ruling that Myriad Genetics Inc can patent two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers, in a case closely watched by the biotechnology industry.
The justices set aside a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that Myriad has the right to patent two human genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, that account for most inherited forms of breast and ovarian cancers, and sent the matter back for more proceedings.
The Supreme Court ordered the further proceedings at the lower court in view of the high court\'s ruling last week ...
Major technological up gradation is being planned in the patent office to enhance the quality of its services, according to the new controller general of patents who took charge last week in Mumbai. The patents office informed that the main aim behind initiating this drive is to upgrade the present system so as to bring in better quality while granting patents in the country.
It is understood that the patent office has decided to develop a better information system in the office which is aimed at developing and improving the interface between the government and the stake holders which inclu...
SHANGHAI - A Chinese company on Friday lost its lawsuit against a Japanese publisher of the cartoon series \"Crayon Shin-chan\" for infringing upon the latter\'s copyright.
Shanghai Enjia Economy and Trade Development Co Ltd, whose products range from garments, shoes and socks to bags and stationery, was ordered to stop infringing upon a copyright owned by Japan\'s Futabasha Publishers Ltd, the Shanghai Municipal No 1 Intermediate People\'s Court ruled Friday.
The Shanghai company was also ordered to pay 300,000 yuan ($47,619) to Futabasha in compensation, the court ruled.
Futabasha said it...
Pharma multinationals, long used to selling their patented drugs at exorbitant prices, appear to have heard the message loud and clear.
Days after the Patent Office granted a compulsory licence to Natco Pharma for manufacturing and selling a generic version of German multinational Bayer’s Nexavar, a drug used in the treatment of liver and kidney cancer, Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding on Friday announced plans to offer cut-price versions of two blockbuster cancer drugs for the Indian market soon.
Roche, the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, said it would offer “significantly” cheaper,...
Saif Ali Khan starrer Agent Vinod will hit theatres on Friday with its popular Pungi baja de number intact as the Bombay High Court on Thursday granted no relief to Iranian music company Barobax Corp that alleged a copyright infringement in the use of the song.
The music company had dragged Eros International Media, Illumanati Films Private Limited, music director Pritam Chakroborty and Super Cassettes Indian Limited to court seeking an injuction on the use of the song in the film.
According to Barobax Corp, on January 16, 2010 it produced and released an album titled Soosan Khanoom, whi...
London court also asked Aerolab to pay Rs 16.7 lk to Force India
Sahara Force India, on Wednesday, was directed by a High Court judge to pay an amount of Rs 5.6 crore (€850,000) as a penalty to its former wind tunnel partner, Aerolab. This penalty comes in as a part of the declaration of an intellectual property dispute between the two teams.
Relating to the teams’ two-year intellectual property dispute, the High Court in London, however, also charged Aerolab for misuse of confidential information, and has asked the company to pay Rs 16.7 lakh (€25,000) to Force India.
Vijay Mallya\'...
LONDON: GlaxoSmithKline, Britain\'s biggest drugmaker, confirmed plans on Thursday to invest more than 500 million pounds in manufacturing in Britain and said it had selected Ulverston, northern England, as the site for a previously announced biotech plant.
GSK had already said it aimed to ramp up investment and bring more jobs to Britain in response to government plans to reduce the level of corporation tax applied to income from patents - a move known as a patent box.
The confirmation of the investment strategy comes the day after finance minister George Osborne\'s budget in which he...
Force India and Caterham are both claiming a win following a judgment in the alleged intellectual property theft case, which has given Formula One a fresh whiff of Spygate, the scandal that rocked the sport in 2007.
The case centred around work done on the 2010 Caterham car, which was then known as Team Lotus. The work was undertaken by the wind tunnel company Aerolab, which had previously worked with Force India.
Aerolab sued Force India for unpaid bills and Force India countersued for \"misuse of confidential information relating to the design of a wind tunnel model as well as claims f...
India is investigating cases of rogue Chinese companies allegedly copying trusted Indian branded products, including Onida home appliances, Boroplus antiseptic cream, Raymond suitings, and even Kama Sutra condoms and selling them in China and abroad.
\"Some cases where Indian products were being copied and sold in China or exported to other countries have come to the notice of the government. All complaints involving copyright/trademark violation against Indian brands have been taken up at appropriate level with relevant government agencies in China,\" minister of state for commerce Jyotir...
For better or worse, you\'ve likely used an emoticon on your smartphone at one point. But who owns the rights to these digital forms of expression?
A company known as Varia Holdings has filed suit against Samsung, arguing that the company\'s use of emoticons on devices like the Captivate, Droid Charge, Epic, Galaxy Nexus, and more violate a patent issued in 2007 for emoticons (or emoji) on mobile devices.
According to Ars Technica, Varia is also going after Research in Motion on the same grounds over the Bold, Curve, Pearl, and Storm.
As described by Varia, emoticons are \"pictorial represe...
Nokia is taking steps to make sure you never miss another phone call, text or email alert again: The company has filed a patent for a tattoo that would send \"a perceivable impulse\" to your skin whenever someone tried to contact you on the phone.
Talk about letting technology get under your skin!
According to the patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the phone would communicate with the tattoo through magnetic waves. The phone would emit magnetic waves and the tattoo would act as a receiver. When the waves hit the tattoo, it would set off a tactile response in...
What is a trademark license?
When someone owns the trademark to a product, they can arrange to license other people to allow them to use the trademark in their business activities. A legal agreement is drawn up between the trademark owner who is called the licensor and the second person who becomes the licensee. This agreement will specify the conditions under which the license is awarded.
A trademark license agreement should be drawn up correctly and by experts in this field. An ordinary attorney just won\'t be sufficiently knowledgeable in this specialist area to protect your inter...
BENEFIT OF REGITRATION OF TRADEMARK IN INDIA
In India, trademark rights arise through use as a trademark. There is no legal requirement to register a trademark. However, there are multiple benefits to having a trademark registered with the Indian Trade Marks Registry.
Trademark registration is perhaps the most important piece of a company’s intellectual
Property protection program. Without trademark registration, a company relies solely
Upon common law rights in the geographic area in which it uses the trademark. Most
Significantly, without registration, a latecomer may register a mark...
Branding
Branding is one of the most important factors influencing a product’s success or failure. Business use branding to launch a new product protects market position, broaden product offerings and enter a new product category.
What is a brand?
The American Marketing Association (AMA), defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competitors”. Therefore brands are denoted not only by things, but also by replicas of peopl...
PROCESS OF REGISTRATION IN INDIA
1. SEARCH:
It is recommended to conduct a Trademark availability search in order to check if any similar Trademark has been filed in India, which may oppose your registration. The cost of the search is generally quite insignificant in comparison to the costs of re-branding if there is difficulty in using the Trademark because it infringes the right of others.
2. FILING:
A Trademark application is filed with Trademark office. Now the Trademark application can be filed for more than one class of goods in one application. An application with priority...
A Trademark is the means by which a business makes itself visible in the marketplace. A Trademark can be any distinctive (not solely descriptive) name or logo. The best Trademarks are instantly recognizable and conjure up in the minds of existing or potential customers things like quality, dependability, or at the very least the source of the goods or services being bought.
A trademark is often defined as: “a word, name, symbol or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others”. A service mark is the same as a tra...
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