|
21st December, 2009 “Holiday”, “Christmas” and “New Year”- Eastern Express Bank’s trademarks? “Vostochnii express”, also known as Eastern Express Bank has applied for a remarkable trade mark. If any other bank wishes to use the adjectives originating from the words “holiday”, “Christmas” or “New Year”, it has to obtain a licence for a fee of 300,000 roubles (about $9930) for a single year from the “Vostochnii express”. Rospatent (the Federal office on intellectual property, patents and trade marks of the Russian Federation) has established that “Vostochnii express” had applied for the registration of the words in question in the banking and financial spheres only. The registration was allowed as the words were not usually related to products and services of the bank.
Indian Parliament approves Madrid Protocol The Indian Parliament has approved the Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill 2009, whereby the long awaited Madrid Protocol gets approval. This will enable Indian and foreign nationals to protect their trade marks simultaneously in different countries. The bill allows a person to seek a global trade mark through a single application, in a single language and a single fee submitted in India. The amendment bill supersedes the existing Act and shortens the trade marks registration procedure. It includes provisions of the Madrid Protocol to ease international registration of trade marks, enabling nationals of its member countries to obtain trade marks registration within 18 months by filing a single application with one fee and one language in their country of origin. The new law will speed up the registration of Indian marks in different markets worldwide and encourage confidence in the Indian Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) system.
The Higher Economic Court in Ukraine has denied the infringement claim of Ferrero’s Raffaello trade mark rights and packaging design. Ferrero, an Italian confectionary Group had alleged infringement of its Raffaello trade mark in Ukraine by Landrin, a Russian confectionary company for producing sweets with coconut filling and almond under its ‘Waferatto” brand of chocolates which are similar to Ferrero’s Raffaello sweets. Ferrero also alleged that Landrin was using Raffaello trade mark images on its chocolate packages. In a similar dispute in Russia in August this year, the Russian Appeal Court decided in favour of Ferrero, confirming the first instance decision issued in April 2009 and prevented Landrin from producing and distributing “Landrin Waferatto Classic” pralines which were similar to Ferrero’s Raffaello pralines.
The China Internet Network Information Center (" CNNIC ") has published the notification about further enhancement of auditing domain name registration information on Dec 11, 2009. Domain name applicants will have to submit the formal paper based application material while making the online application to the registrar from Dec 14, 2009. The application would include the original application form with business seal, photocopy of company business license, and photocopy of registrant ID. The compulsory submission of company business license shows that registration of CN domain names is only open to companies and institutes. Individual registrants can not register for CN domain names if they cannot provide business license or organization code. With regard to registered websites of individuals, CNNIC would thoroughly examine their domain registration information. The Indian Patent Office has issued the notification on the qualifying exam for Patent Agents. The exam is scheduled to be held on 23rd and 24th January 2010 at centers located in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi. Some changes had been made in the question paper pattern. Paper I, comprising Patent Act and Rules, will have 40 marks of objective type and 60 marks of descriptive type questions. Paper II will constitute a set of 2 questions of 30 marks each, on Claims and Specification drafting, and 40 marks of descriptive /interpretative type questions. The Patent Agent Examination Board will finalize the question paper. The Viva-voce examination is scheduled to be held on 24th Jan and may extend to 25th Jan, for the local candidates. The last date for receiving complete applications is on or before 31st December 2009. 
Global Findability has filed a patent infringement suit in a District Court of Columbia against Summit Entertainment. Global Findability claims that the Science Fiction movie of Summit called “Knowing” starring Nicolas Cage violates its US patent relating to integrated information processing system for geospatial media. According to Global Findability, Summit's use of its patented technology in the movie amounts to patent infringement actually because the characters in the film are depicted using a string of numbers (including date, latitude, and longitude) to indicate the time and location of an event. In the movie “Knowing” Nicolas Cage acts as a genius MIT professor who decodes series of numbers delivered from divine sources. Decoding these numbers provides information about future catastrophic events, including their exact geophysical location and even the number of victims. The case is yet to be heard by the judge.
Eastman Kodak Co has won a preliminary fight against Samsung Electronics for infringing its digital camera patents. After an administrative proceeding, an International Trade Commission judge ruled that Samsung had infringed two Kodak patents relating to digital cameras. In November 2008, Kodak had initially filed suit against Samsung and LG Electronics and their subsidiaries, alleging that the digital cameras used in LG and Samsung telephones were made with Kodak’s patented technology. Under terms of the settlement, Kodak would sell its super-thin organic light emitting diodes (OLED) screen technology to LG. Unlike LED screens, OLED screens do not require backlighting, which makes them thinner and less power consuming. The two companies will now have access to each other's patent portfolios.
|
Archived Weekly News |
