28th June , 2011
Raymond moves HC regarding patent case
Raymond Ltd., an Indian Textile major and its Chairman Emeritus have moved the Bombay High Court seeking to invalidate an FIR registered against them in November last year.
A Juhu, Mumbai resident Bharat Bhogilal Patel, who claims to be the inventor of a laser-based technology, had alleged that Raymond was infringing on his patents. He claimed that the textile company was using two technologies invented and patented by him without his permission.
In reply Raymond filed a petition stating that Patel has been wrongly claiming patent over the said technology since 1998 as “the technology has been available in India since at least early 90s”. The company had purchased the laser marking machine in 2004 from another company.
Patel however contends that he was the only holder of the patent and that the company which sold the said technology to Raymond had no right to sell the technology. The court case is likely to come up for hearing on July 12.
Bristol and Sarah Palin to trademark their names
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee and her daughter Bristol Palin have applied to the USPTO to trademark their respective names.
Both mother and daughter's papers fulfilled the requirements for trademarking their names and there were no objections to the requests. In the coming few weeks, the mother daughter duo will both have copyrights next to their names.
Ms. Palin paid $650 for her trademark, covering two areas, and Bristol Palin paid $325 for one area. Sarah Palin's trademark filing covered "educational and entertainment services, namely, providing motivational speaking services in the field of politics, culture, business and values", which was amended to include "information about political elections" and "a website featuring information about political issues." That means that no one else can use their names in either an entertainment or political context.
BitTorrent accused of patent infringement
A San Francisco company has accused BitTorrent Inc. of infringing its patent issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November 2007. BitTorrent, whose Internet protocol is used by many to share music and films, is also based in San Francisco.
The patent was assigned to Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network in April 2001 and covers a technology that enables data distribution over a network by breaking it down into small bits. Tranz-Send alleges that BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer file-sharing method infringes at least one claim of the patent.
Tranz-Send has sought monetary damages, attorney fees and litigation costs. The company however has not sought any order barring the use of its technology.
Google to digitize 250,000 Out-of-Copyright titles of British Library
Google Inc., the search engine giant and the British Library have entered into a partnership to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright books from the Library’s collections. This would open up access to one of the greatest collections of books in the world. This content would be available free through Google Books and the British Library’s website, with. Google covering all digitization costs.
The British Library's collection is one of the massive in the world second only to the U.S. Library of Congress and has a collection of about 14 million books. Students, researchers and other users of the Library will be able to view these books, available in a variety of languages, through its Google Books from anywhere in the world as well as copy, share and manipulate text for non-commercial purposes.
Google has been intelligent enough to avoid infringement problems as many of these titles dating back from 1700 to 1870 are out of copyright.
Google has already scanned 13 million books through partnerships with more than 40 libraries around the world.
Avesthagen gets US patent for sunflower transformation
Avesthagen, a leading Indian Integrated systems biology platform company has been granted patent by the USPTO for sunflower transformation and eco-friendly safe selection method, which can substitute the traditional antibiotic marker technology in GM crops.
This novel technology would assist in new improved biotech crops that are eco-friendly and helpful for human health, according to the firm. Antibiotic resistance marker genes that are being used in developing genetically modified (GM) crops have been opposed world-wide as this would ultimately increase the occurrence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Avesthagen's Xylose Isomerase (XI) technology does not use antibiotics in the selection process thus ruling out the occurrence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. This positive selection process is based on the function imparted by the patented technology to metabolize certain carbohydrate compounds. Avesthagen's patented technology has improved sunflower transformation process thus supporting the process of producing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are essential for human health. The effectiveness of transformation of this method is about 2 to 3 times that of the antibiotic based methods.
SAFA Purchases Bafana Bafana Trademark
The trademark for Bafana Bafana has been acquired by the South African Football Association (SAFA) after much deliberation and ends an 18-year battle for the rights to the national team's nickname.
SAFA bought the full rights to the name from Stanton Woodrush Ltd, the company which owns the Bafana Bafana trademark for apparel, headwear and footwear. SAFA, which had considered changing the team's nickname paid R5 million fee over a 12-month period.
The national football governing body had failed twice, in 2002 and 2005, to gain rights to the name. In due course it entered into a joint venture company with Stanton Woodrush in 2005 -- Safa Licensing and Management (Slam) and owned 50.5 percent of Slam, which controlled the trademark, while Stanton Woodrush owner Wayne Smidt held the other 49.5 percent.
The term Bafana Bafana, means "The Boys" in Zulu.
