GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION
GI TAG FOR VENKATAGIRI SAREES
The Venkatagiri saree becomes the 18th Indian saree to get Geographical Indication (GI) from the registrar of intellectual property rights. This 300-year-old traditional saree is produced by weavers of Venkatagiri town in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.
Once patronized by the royal Velugoti dynasty of Nellore, these sarees are made of pure cotton with elaborate gold and silver zari work and are fully handwoven.
The Venkatagiri Handloom Sarees Apex Society is responsible for the maintenance of quality standards for these typical south Indian saris which are soft and colour-fast. The weavers take special care to use soft water for dyeing and treating the yarn.
COPYRIGHT
COPYRIGHT FOR PAINTINGS OF LATE PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) will issue copyright certificates to the paintings of the late President Corazon Aquino, who was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office in that country. These certificates will be issued in commemoration of the 11th World Intellectual Property Day this week.
The first/maiden copyright registration certificate covering the paintings created by the late President would be issued in favor of the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF) in a ceremony at the IPOPHL on April 29.
The IPOPHL also announced that the Copyright Registration and Deposit System (CoRDS) will be functional by June 2011. IPOPHL would start accepting applications from artists, scholars and all copyright stakeholders on behalf of the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), with the launching of CoRDS. This is a project which is the resultant of a Memorandum of Agreement signed by the NLP and IPOPHL on January 25, 2011.
PATENT
DR REDDY'S SIGNS DEAL WITH WYETH ON EFFEXOR
Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., the Hyderabad-based Indian drug firm has signed a settlement deal with Wyeth, a subsidiary of the international pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc, over a generic version of the best-seller antidepressant and anti-anxiety drug - Effexor XR.
Wyeth had filed lawsuits against a number of generic drug firms to protect its hold on the market for Venlafaxine-HCl extended release capsules. This subsidiary of Pfizer Inc. had entered into a similar settlement agreement with Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceutical Ltd this month. Sun Pharma, Lupin, Aurobindo Pharma, Ranbaxy and Teva are the other companies with which Wyeth had entered into settlements last year.
Patents for the blockbuster antidepressant and anti-anxiety drug Effexor are set to expire in September 2017.
INDIA DOCUMENTS YOGA POSTURES TO CHECK PATENT PIRACY
India has prepared a database describing 1,300 yoga postures including videos of 200 asanas to check patent pirates from exploiting ancient Indian knowledge for commercial gains. CSIR referred 16 ancient texts, including Patanjali Yoga Sutra and described the yoga postures, now made available to international patent offices through the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). The 30-40 most popular yoga asanas documented in the digital library would be available in the open domain and the rest would be available only to patent offices. India has signed agreements with the patent offices of US, Europe, German, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan, joining the list of patent offices having access to resources on traditional knowledge of India.
ACUSHNET WINS PATENT FIGHT OVER PRO V1 GOLF BALL
The golf business company of Fortune Brands Inc., Acushnet Co. has won a federal court ruling in its favor in a patent row with a Carlsbad-based company, Callaway Golf Co. Acushnet had requested the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to re-examine patents on some of its golf balls way back in January 2006 and Callaway had filed a lawsuit against Acushnet in February 2006, claiming Acushnet's Titleist Pro V1 golf balls infringed on its own patents. A court decision prohibiting Acushnet from selling the balls was passed and Acushnet was ordered to pay $150 million in damages to Callaway.
In March 2010 a jury ruled that the Callaway claims to the patents were invalid. This verdict was upheld by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, which rejected Callaway's request for a new trial for the five-year-old case.
First played in the U.S. Open in 1949, Titleist golf balls are the top-selling golf balls in US. The Pro V1 ball, introduced to professional players in 2000, has the position of the most popular high-performance ball in golf. The patents related to this ball were issued in 2001 and 2003.
TRADEMARK
HC UPHOLDS ASHOK LEYLAND'S "LUXURA" TRADEMARK SUIT ORDER
The Madras High Court has dismissed the appeal of Bangalore-based Blue Hill Logistics Pvt Ltd that had challenged an order of a single judge-Bench which had restrained Blue Hill Logistics from infringing Ashok Leyland's registered trademark "Luxura". The logistics company had been using an identical trademark on their buses.
Ashok Leyland which launched the Luxura bus in 2006 had sought an injunction to restrain Blue Hill Logistics Pvt Ltd and Mumbai-based Dilip Chhabria Design Private Ltd from infringing its trade mark. Blue Hill ferries Volvo buses designed by Dilip Chaabria Design Private Ltd between Bengaluru and Chennai under the trademark 'Luxuria'.
Blue Hill had contended that Ashok Leyland cannot claim monopoly either over the word "LUXURY" or its variants. The division bench, dismissing the appeal, stated that as Ashok Leyland has registered the trade mark, it is the legal owner of the mark and it would incur loss if the infringement is not checked.
PEPSICO AND COCA-COLA SETTLE TRADEMARK ROW OVER FRUIT JUICE PACKING
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have settled a trademark lawsuit over PepsiCo's packaging for its Trop50 line of fruit juices. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola had accused PepsiCo of copying the Trop50 packaging from it's Simply line of fruit juices, sold in carafe-style bottles with narrowed necks and oversized green screw caps.
Coca-Cola had claimed in its suit that PepsiCo's new low-calorie Trop50 brand of fruit juices would confuse consumers and weaken the quality of Coke's Simply brand of premium juices. the Coca-Cola's Simply line of juices were launched in 2001and PepsiCo began selling Trop50 juices in paper cartons in 2009 and repackaged the product in the clear plastic carafes last year.
A U.S. District Judge dismissed the lawsuit after the companies reached a settlement over the issue and submitted a joint motion seeking to terminate it.
