28th July, 2010

Argentina wins Monsanto GM patent dispute

The European Union's Court of Justice has barred the world's largest seed company, Monsanto from blocking Argentina's soy meal exports to European Union (EU) countries, even though the meal is prepared using a technology that the company has patented in Europe.

Monsanto had tried to stop the exports, alleging that Argentinean soy meal infringed the European patent. Monsanto holds European patents for Roundup Ready (RR) technology, which makes a transgenic soybean plant resistant to the widely used herbicide glyphosate. Argentina argued that the patent was applicable only when the transgene was used for protecting living plants from the RR herbicide.

The EU's highest court ruled that RR technology did not apply to soy products containing the patented DNA sequence in a residual condition. This ruling would simplify the marketing of soy products like flour and oil that Argentina sells to the EU. Argentina is the world's second largest producer of this kind of transgenic soya.

Monsanto profited from a technology not patented in Argentina where the seeds were sold under license by a US company which was acquired by Nidera – a seed and grain importer from Buenos Aires.

Inventor wins trade secret theft suit

In a judgment that granted one of the largest individual copyright infringement awards in U.S. history, a federal judge upheld a jury’s verdict to award $26 million as compensation to the mining-tyre inventor Jordan Fishman and his company, Alpha Mining Systems, after the inventor’s blueprints were unlawfully copied.

The Shandong Linglong Rubber Company of China and the Dubai-based Al Dobowi  Tyre Company are the companies accused of stealing blueprint back in 2005. Fishman’s invention was stolen by former employees and exploited by these tyre manufacturing and distributing companies.

A sales and marketing manager of Fishman’s company, Sam Vance joined the Al Dobowi Group in 2005 and conveyed all of Alpha’s trade secrets, including pricing information, customer lists, and design blueprints to the company and was remunerated with a commission on every tire sold.

 This case should caution all foreign multinational corporations who wish to benefit from stealing intellectual property from a small business.

‘Raymond’ trademark to be shared by two companies

The Bombay High Court has ordered the textile company of the Singhania group – Raymond, to share its trademark "Raymond" with a Chennai-based held pharmaceutical company Raymond Pharmaceuticals. The Mumbai-based textile company had approached the Court in 2006 alleging trademark infringement by the pharma company which used its registered "Raymond" trademark.

The division bench mentioned that if the defendant (Raymond Pharmaceuticals) uses the registered trademark as a part of its trade name and does not deal in the same goods in respect of which the trademark is registered, then it does not amount to infringement.

Under section 29(4), even when the products of both companies are not similar, there is an infringement as one company benefits from the reputation of the registered trademark and this could lead to loss of distinction of the trademark as contested by Raymond Ltd's counsels. But this judgment would dissolve the mutual exclusiveness of Sections 29(4) and 29(5) of the Trademark Act, 1999 when the registered trademark is used as part of the corporate name.

MOSAID and Nanya Technology sign patent license agreement

MOSAID Technologies Inc., the leading DRAM vendor in Taiwan has signed a seven year, royalty bearing patent license agreement with Nanya Technology Corporation of Taiwan. This new agreement will commence on October 1, 2010, after the current five year agreement expires on September 30, 2010.

The new agreement grants Nanya a license under MOSAID’s memory patents for all Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and other semiconductor memory products sold worldwide under Nanya’s brand name. The new agreement signed well in advance of the expiration of the current agreement, with the exception of the longer term, is similar to Nanya’s existing agreement.

MOSAID Technologies Inc. is one of the world's leading (IP) intellectual property company that develops semiconductor memory technology and licenses patented technologies in the field of semiconductors and telecommunications systems. MOSAID has licensed its semiconductor memory patents to almost all the companies that make commodity DRAM chips.

South Africa Fight over 'Bafana Bafana' Trademark

The South African Football Association (Safa) is facing a trademark dilemma with issues surrounding the term ‘Bafana Bafana’. In 1992 journalists used the name ‘Bafana’ to refer to the national soccer team. The country's senior Football team is branded as Bafana Bafana which means boys.

A well-known businessman in South Africa, Stanton Woodrush, has already won two court cases to retain the name Bafana Bafana for his clothing range. Woodrush was the first to apply for the registration of the name as a trademark. The South African Parliament has asked Safa to either resolve the controversy regarding the Bafana trademark ownership or change the name.

In 1994, the then sponsor of the national soccer team, Kappa Holdings Ltd, filed applications for the trademarks Bafana and Bafana Bafana and later in 1997 made efforts to legalize their association with the name Bafana Bafana for virtually all goods and service. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed a Safa claim that it owned the trademark Bafana Bafana in relation to clothing.

The South African sports authorities do not want a businessman to profit from the name at the expense of the national team’s advertisements and promotions and wish to ultimately change the name.

Forest Laboratories, Inc., Forest Laboratories Holdings, Ltd, Merz Pharma GmbH & Co KGaA, and Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH have entered into settlement agreements with all remaining defendants in patent infringement litigation related to Forest's Namenda (memantine hydrochloride) immediate release tablets.

The first generic versions of memantine would be able to enter the pharma market on January 11, 2015 under the settlement agreements. US-based Forest Laboratories and Merz Pharma will provide licenses to each of Amneal, Watson, Dr Reddy's, Lupin, Mylan, Orchid, Sun, Teva, Upsher-Smith, and Wockhardt that will permit these companies to launch their generic versions of NAMENDA®.

Rambus wins ITC Patent Case against Nvidia

The International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled that Nvidia (NVDA), the graphic chip maker has infringed chip design firm Rambus patents and has issued an order halting the import of any chip that uses the infringing technology. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) Asus, Palit Multimedia, MSI Computer, EVGA Corp., DiabloTek, Biostar Microtech and BFG Technologies are the other companies that infringed the patent by using the NVDA parts in their products.

The patented technology controls and manages the flow of computer data to and from a chip's memory. Rambus has licensed these patents to be used in products of other companies like Sony Corp's Playstation 3. Nvidia, whose main business depends on the sale of specialized graphics cards, would make an appeal against this order. The company argued these patents were covered by a 2009 agreement that Rambus made with the European Commission to resolve a standards-setting case.

The International Trade Commission is the authority that can stop the imports of products made with infringing technology into the United States. If it orders a ban on import, the order would be effective only after a standard 60-day executive branch review.