14th November, 2011

Amazon.com files for 'Amazon-flow' trademark

The Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, filed a trademark application with the US Patent Office to register the term “Amazon Flow”.

The application covers a wide variety of uses with relation to cloud computing. The online company held that it would be used for offering an online network that allows users to access and share content, text, data, images, graphics, audio, video, resources and websites, and for computer services to enable access to social networking services.

mazon could be working on an iCloud-like media network service for its Kindle devices called Amazon Flow with Amazon registering numerous private domain names related to the Flow mark like Amazonflowapp.com, Flowappbyamazon.com. Amazon Flow is being designed to integrate all types of media that Amazon serves up within one application.

Colgate and Glaxo settle toothpaste lawsuit

A court case between New York based Colgate-Palmolive Co and GlaxoSmithKline Plc., two of the world's biggest toothpaste makers, over a globule of toothpaste has come to an end.  The companies had sued each other in July 2010 at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The companies have now reached a confidential settlement of litigation over the right of using a "nurdle," a small amount of wave-shaped toothpaste on a toothbrush.

Colgate has sought a court order allowing it to use toothpaste packaging that overlay the words "Triple Action" on a blue, white and green nurdle. Glaxo, the British company, which uses the "Triple Protection" phrase for its Aquafresh toothpaste, retaliated by accusing Colgate of trying to "trade off the commercial appeal" of its own packaging, which showed a red, white and blue nurdle.

Vietnamese Coffee Growers to fight for "Buon Ma Thuot” and “Dak Lak” trademarks

The Coffee growers from Vietnam’s Dak Lak province and the Vietnamese government authorities are preparing to spend as much as US$28,800 in efforts to regain international control of their “Buon Ma Thuot” and “Dak Lak” trademarks.

The “Dak Lak”mark was recently registered by a Chinese company in China, and the “Dak Lak” coffee mark has been registered in 10 different countries by a French company, ITM Entreprises.

The Buon Ma Thuot region of Dak Lak is Vietnam’s largest coffee-growing region, with an annual production of 300,000 tonnes and exports to more than 60 countries.

The authorities in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak will sue the Chinese company Guangzhou Buon Ma Thuot Co. Ltd, for a trademark on the renowned Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand. They would urge the company to cancel their patent in China. Failing that, they said, legal proceedings would follow.

The Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association has been authorized to be in charge of the suit.

Temporary Ban on Indian garment Maker’s ‘Cadbeery’ Mark

The Delhi High Court had banned an Indian garment manufacturer from using the trade name “Cadbeery” for its products following an appeal from Kraft Food Inc.’s Cadbury unit.

Lodah Garments is barred from using “Cadbeery” or any other mark confusingly similar to the chocolatier’s marks. The court order is only temporary and Cadbury would in future appeal for a permanent ban on the use of the “Cadbeery” mark and that it should receive monetary damages from Lodah as well.

Kraft Food Inc.’s Cadbury unit has alleged that the “Cadbeery” mark used by the garment maker has the same font as the candy, and has been deluding customers.

Fujitsu develops patent search service

Searching for international patents would now become easy as Fujitsu has developed a patent search service ATMS/PATENTAN. It is part of Fujitsu's ATMS intellectual property solution that provides complete support to businesses for their IP-related activities.

The new service initially offered on a free trial basis in Japan is being open under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. The service allows users to search for, view, and print the patent information of countries around the world.

The service includes reading-assistance features that convert the format of patent texts in Japanese into more reader-friendly forms. Searches can be performed on patents from Japan, Europe, North America, China, India, Brazil, and other nations. The service was jointly developed with G-Search Limited, a Fujitsu Group company.