Intellectual Property Law Articles

Every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office reconsiders exclusions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s provisions prohibiting the circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.

Unfortunately, the rights granted by a U.S. patent or trademark can only be enforced in the United States and generally have no effect in a foreign country. Therefore, a company who wants to safeguard its intellectual property rights in other countries must take additional steps to ensure international protection.

The U.S. patent and Trademark Office celebrated an important milestone earlier this month. April 10 marked the anniversary of the first U.S. patent law, which was enacted on April 10, 1790.

U.S. firms are indeed among the most innovative. The report, published by Thompson Reuters, examined a series of patent-related metrics to come up with a list of the top 100 leaders in innovation.

If you have done any research into filing a trademark application, you know that there are some decisions to make. One of the most important choices is the depiction of your mark.

Google has long provided the service of blocking search results in pursuance to website takedown requests.

If you have correspondence from the U.S. Copyright Office sitting in a pile of paperwork on your desk, we urge you to read this post. Many communications from the Copyright Office set forth specific timelines for replying. If you miss these deadlines, you could be putting your intellectual property rights at risk.

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. is parting ways with its oldest bottler, after a trademark dispute soured the business relationship. According to a joint statement, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group has bought all of the bottler's sales and distribution operations under the terms of a settlement agreement.

This article is concerning how to conduct a trademark search on the official website of trademark office of China, the applicant could use this system to conduct a preliminary search before start the filing. For the particular search method please refer to our company website.

Trademark, best known as “brand”, is an intellectual property that designed and used by its holders to distinguish his/her goods or services from others. With the growth of public’s awareness of IPR protection, trademark is no more a simply symbol, but instead, it represents the image of an enterprise, carries the reputation of an entity, and becomes an intangible assets that cannot be overlooked by the company.

The internationally recognised regulator of web addresses Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is constantly seeking new ways to avoid abusive use of domain names. One of the more common abuses is that of cybersquatting, the act of registering domain names consisting in somebody else’s trademark in order to make gains of that trademark’s reputation. There are several types of cybersquatting, however this is the most common.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the launch of another new pilot program. This program aims to incentivize the distribution of patented technologies to address humanitarian needs.

The concept of the Community Trademark (CTM) has long been considered very straight-forward in its approach. The common understanding is that it gives protection of a trademark applicable to all 27 Member States of the EU. Naturally, this could be easily abused if a CTM were registered and only used in one Member State.

Hershey filed a trademark application seeking to protect the shape of its famous Hershey bar. The application describes it as “a configuration of a candy bar that consists of twelve equally-sized recessed rectangular panels arranged in a four panel by three panel formats with each panel having its own raised border within a large rectangle.”

A recent decision of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) demonstrated that a lack of distinctive character, among other things, can prevent a trademark from being registered.

A former Sony Corp employee has been awarded $30.2 million in damages resulting from his claims that Nintendo infringed on his patent for 3D technology. Plaintiff claimed that the globally recognized video game leader used his technology in producing the Nintendo 3DS, a handheld, 3D capable gaming console. What makes the product and plaintiff’s invention unique is that it allowed the effect of 3D visuals without the need for 3D glasses - a major step forward in 3D technology.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently issued a report on how to make international patents more available to small businesses. The report, prepared in conjunction with the Small Business Administration, was mandated by the America Invents Act. The goal was to determine how best to defray the costs of filing, maintaining, and enforcing international patents for small businesses.

A common issue when providing legal representation and advice to start-ups and entrepreneurs is to find trademarks that were not created taking into account the legal side of the trademark’s wording and design.

Digital music companies often rely on compulsory licenses to stream copyrighted content. Section 115 of the Copyright Act provides a compulsory license for most copyrighted musical compositions (with the exception of soundtracks) that have been released to the public.

The International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examined the use of specialized intellectual property courts around the globe. After reviewing the intellectual property laws and regulations of over 190 countries, the “Study on Specialized Intellectual Property Courts” concludes that although intellectual property rights (IPR) courts may vary worldwide, they all offer the distinct advantage of an informed and capable judiciary.

Nowadays the subject “Copyright” in the case of buildings occupies architects and builders more and more.

Unfortunately, there are countless companies that are looking to take advantage of an inventor’s eagerness to bring his or her ideas to market. Therefore, if you or your company is planning to hire an invention promoter, it is important to understand how to discern a legitimate marketing company from a scam.

Sound trademarks have been in the news lately as the Canadian Intellectual Property Office recently announced that it will now allow sounds to be trademarked. The decision comes after a twenty-year legal battle with movie giant MGM, which sought to trademark the lion’s roar heard at the end of its films.

After a series of debates spanning around forty years, the EU has finally approved the new unitary patent system as of 19th of February, 2013.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently published final rules governing derivation proceedings. The new patent proceedings are designed to ensure that a person will not be able to obtain a patent for an invention that he or she did not actually invent once the new first-inventor-to-file system launches.

A former Motorola employee has been sentenced to four years in prison for trade secret theft. Hanjuan Jin’s sentence is one of the harshest in the history of criminal trade secret theft prosecutions.

Companies with the same name that are operative in separate economic areas may, considering certain formalities, also advertise themselves in the other company's respective area.

In 1995, Turkey has started the necessary studies for building an active and modern intellectual and intellectual property rights system and achieved significant results. The steps taken by Turkey in the previous decade in the field of intellectual and industrial property rights are embodied in various laws, decree laws and regulations.

Under U.S. patent law, an invention cannot be patented if: "(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent," or "(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the application for patent in the United States ..."

On the heels of its decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., the Supreme Court has remanded another controversial patent case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which specializes in patent litigation.

A new tax regime for royalty from Intellectual Property rights in Cyprus, which can be used by global IP owners, allows for as low as 0 to 2% effective tax on profits from such IP rights.

The Federal Court of Justice clarified that an improper warning notice due to a breach of copyright does not always extinguish the injunctive relief.

While the jury delivered a partial verdict in the copyright infringement phase of the Oracle v. Google trial, there is arguably still no clear winner. Because the jury did not decide the issue of fair use, Google is seeking a mistrial.

With the explosion of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it is likely that many of your employees use social media for both personal and business interactions. While these tools can be a great way to spread the word about your company’s products or services, they can also compromise proprietary information, including trade secrets.

In the past, the problem of “Copyright” in the case of buildings has made a name for itself in the press.

To help crack down on for-profit colleges and universities using fraudulent tactics to enroll military veterans, President Barak Obama is turning to trademark law. The White House recently announced that the President will sign an executive order that, among other things, orders the Department of Veterans Affairs to register “GI Bill” as a trademark.

The European Union has spent a good number of years trying to consolidate bloc-wide intellectual property regimes to improve the efficiency of the Single Market.

A trademark should be distinctive in order to be eligible for registration.

Company who wants to safeguard its intellectual property rights in other countries must take additional steps to ensure international protection. To help streamline the process, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has entered into partnerships with countries across the world.

Thanks to the Internet, it is possible to share a photograph in a matter of seconds. However, this same technology also makes it easier for someone to use your photo without your permission or without paying a fee. Therefore, it is often necessary to take steps to protect it under copyright law.

In doing so, the Court referred to the design aspects of a screen mask in the field of software.

When creating one’s own homepage, the use of third party pictures or texts can rapidly lead to an infringement of copyright laws. Entrepreneurs in particular must, however, tread carefully not only in this area.

Apple Inc.’s recent blockbuster $1.05 billion verdict in its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. may not translate into victories overseas. Apple and Samsung have patent litigation currently pending on four continents, and each company has been able to claim some measure of success in recent weeks.

Apple has been awarded a preliminary injunction in its ongoing patent infringement lawsuit with Samsung Electronics. The injunction prohibits the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in the United States.

A trade mark should be distinctive in order to be eligible for registration.

The NBA’s number one draft pick is a smart guy, both on and off the court. Even before being drafted by the New Orleans Hornets, Anthony Davis, famous for his connected eyebrows, filed trademark applications for the phrases “Fear The Brow” and “Raise The Brow.”

As MySpace seeks to regain its relevance in the ever-changing world of social media, it may be able to rely on the momentum of a recent intellectual property victory over Apple. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently denied Apple’s bid to trademark its famous music icon after determining it was too similar to a mark already registered by MySpace. Both marks depict a double musical note in an orange rectangle.

The global brands can assert the rules of fair competition in Ukraine.

The copyright infringement litigation pitting startup Aereo against several major broadcasters is now underway. Because the decision could shake up how consumers get their television, the media and technology industries are closely watching the case.

In addition to amending patent law (which is not covered in this article), the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Act 2012 (Cth) ("the IPRB") aims to significantly improve and streamline trade mark and copyright law in Australia from 15 April 2013, and strengthen the rights of intellectual property owners.

Law & Justice Review, Vol. 1, Issue 4, Haziran 2012, ss.163-177

As trademark attorneys, we are hopeful that a new rule proposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will help trademark owners prevent counterfeit goods from entering the U.S. market. The Intellectual Property Rights Interim Final Rule would allow the agency to share information about potentially infringing products with trademark holders.

The new services items in Class 35 would be effective from January 1, 2013 in China and those items don’t approximate to the existed items "Sales promotion for others" in the same registration. It's the first time of China adopt the trademark classfications of retail and wholesales in trademark applications. But that means, a preemptive registration risk for registred trademark in "sales promotion for others" in class 35 shall under consideration of the trademark holder.

If you use Twitter and other social media websites, you have likely seen some questionable content pass through your feed. As highlighted by recent arrests in the United Kingdom, social media users may actually be breaking online privacy laws in some circumstances.

Smart phone maker Research in Motion recently demonstrated the importance of conducting trademark research before committing to a name for your product. Less than two months after the maker of the Blackberry devices announced that its new operating system would be called BBX, the company was forced to alter course. It will now be called BlackBerry 10.

The Eastern District of Virginia has determined that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has been incorrectly calculating patent term adjustment.

The Obama Administration is working to develop a new strategy for intellectual property enforcement and is asking for the public’s help.

The proposed new EU General Data Protection Regulation continues to generate discussion at the EU level.

If you like to browse the Internet while at work, a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is welcome news. Because many employees like to use the Internet for personal use during work hours, many employers have adopted policies prohibiting the use of work computers for nonbusiness purposes. In United States v. Nosal, the Ninth Circuit answered a very important question—Does an employee who violates such a policy commit a federal crime?

The IP litigation between tech giants Oracle and Google is currently underway. The trial involves claims that Google’s Android mobile operating system violates certain Java-related patents and copyrights now owned by Oracle.

The amendments to the Belgian Act on Electronic Communications (Telecom Act) entered into force on October 1, 2012. Amongst other things, the amended Telecom Act introduces a requirement for opt-in consent for cookies and a data breach notification obligation for telecommunications providers.

On the 5th of December 2012, the Commission of the European Union announced that it will begin the process of reviewing existing EU copyright laws. The aim of this review is to better define what is considered fair use of copyrighted material on the internet. This, in turn, would further clarify what constitutes piracy on the web.

Peruvian Industrial Property Legislation allows to the owner of trademarks to file an infringement procedure against the merchants who use the registered trademark in the market without any authorization.

Current law provides us with the possibility that resolutions approving the payment of expenses and costs become enforceable titles, and could be executed subsequently before the judicial channel by means of a relatively fast procedure.

To help crack down on for-profit colleges and universities using fraudulent tactics to enroll military veterans, President Barak Obama is turning to trademark law. The White House recently announced that the President will sign an executive order that, among other things, orders the Department of Veterans Affairs to register “GI Bill” as a trademark.

Journal of the Justice Academy of Turkey, vol. 6, 2011, p. 383-412. (Peer Reviewed)

Due to gradually escalating product along with the trademark infringements, defense against intellectual property infringement is more essential than before. Attributes related security rights are frequently enabled through a published warning.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has decided that resale of licences for second hand software is, in general, possible.

Responding to questions about the legality of its content, social media site Pinterest is taking additional measures to protect copyrighted material posted online. As the company states on its blog, “We want to try to give credit where credit is due.”

This article looks at Zippo's recent trademark litigation action and the recognition of ZIPPO as a well-known trademark in China, by the Zhejiang High Court.

When someone is looking for information, we frequently tell them to “google it,” meaning look it up using the Internet. But has the word become so synonymous with search that Google could lose its trademark protection?

Rejection and non-registration of international trademarks using the Madrid system often go unnoticed for years resulting in crisis once enforcement action is sought. Careful scrutiny of the current status of such registrations is advisable to all international trademark holders.

Sports stars continue to be magnets for intellectual property lawsuits. In the midst of the NBA Finals, Kevin Durant was hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit. A heavy-metal musician named Mark Durante claims the basketball player is illegally using his nickname, “Durantula.”

Samsung have been successful in their petition to the courts to compel Apple to disclose the contents of the settlement it made with HTC.

If a photo-artist grants a publisher exclusive right to a collection of his pictorial material, he still does not lose the right to use separate photographs of the said collection.

Due to expanding product and the copyright law infringements, safety measures are more important than ever before. Properties with corresponding defense rights can often be applied by having a written caution issued.

In case the priority regarding a community trademark over a national trade mark is in debate, then the day of registration is applicable and not the particular time. The exact time of the brand registration should not be assessed.

U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte is hoping that everything he touches turns to gold. He has reportedly filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the phrase "Jeah."

Trade secret theft is generally addressed through civil lawsuits. However, in some cases, the misappropriation of trade secrets can rise to the level of a federal crime. The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 criminalizes trade secret theft committed for personal benefit within the country or for the benefit of a foreign government.

Apple’s on-going patent wars have made new developments. In the wake of the recent litigations with HTC, it appears that Apple has actually chosen to licence some of their patents to HTC.

We have previously stated that Intellectual Property is an increasingly serious matter for Latin American nations as they become ever more competitive and integrated with the global economy. With the implementation of IP-specific courts in several countries, Latin America is going even beyond world standards on IP-specialization.

In case the priority regarding a community trademark over a national trade mark is in debate, then the day of registration is applicable and not the particular time. The exact time of the brand registration should not be assessed.

The Department of Justice recently announced that it has shut down three website domain names engaged in the unauthorized sale of copyrighted Android cell phone apps. The operation was the first of its kind.

A group of American TV providers have recently sued Dish Network, a satellite television provider, for copyright infringement because of its “Autohop” service.

This article summarises the 6 years of design patent litigation between Neoplan and Zhongda, two heavy weights in bus manufacturing. Readers will see that it is vital for manufacturers and designers to protect the confidentiality of their designs prior to the filing of design patent applications in China and elsewhere.

During its 2011-2012, the United States Supreme Court recently issued a key intellectual property decision. In Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., the Supreme Court ruled that a medical process of making correlations between blood test results and patient health could not be patented because it incorporated laws of nature.

If for example, the main priority of a community trademark over a national trade mark is in question, then the day of registration is applicable and never the particular time. The precise time of the brand registration shouldn't be assessed.

When granting a publisher exclusive rights, the photo-artist does not always lose the right to use individual photos of a series.

A European business group is calling on China to make big changes to its patent system. The European Chamber of Commerce in China argues that the current Chinese patent system hinders the country's ability to innovate and may be detrimental to foreign companies. The group released a report recommending a total of 52 changes.

Without a doubt one of the biggest legal battles to take place this year is that between South Korean Samsung Electronics Co and Apple. The two lawsuits, one by Samsung against Apple and one by Apple against Samsung had been scheduled for Friday morning, but jaws dropped around Seoul Thursday afternoon when the court decided last-minute to postpone a verdict.

Another day, another litigation over patenting laws. Introducing ‘Siri:’ Apple’s computer voice search-and-speak technology inside newer iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices. Those of us with IPhones will know the joys and blunders of this so called revolutionary talking app. Our personal ‘Siri’ experiences aside, the little voice of wisdom is already getting herself in trouble.

Teller of Penn & Teller fame is suing Dutch magician Gerard Dogge for allegedly stealing his copyrighted magic piece called Shadows. According to the copyright infringement lawsuit, Dooge performed a similar illusion called The Rose & Her Shadow in a YouTube video, which offered to reveal the “magic” behind the trick for $3,050.

China began to allow for the registration of three-dimensional (3D) marks when the new Trademark Law was passed in 2001. Unfortunately, the Chinese Trademark Office (CTO) has been very strict when examining these sorts of applications, so only a few have registered. Some recent cases will change this ...

A new study reveals that over 20 percent of patent filings can now be traced to mobile technology. The findings suggest that the industry may be the future of innovation. The study, authored by consultant Chetan Sharma, examined approximately 7 million patents granted both by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office.

When granting a publisher exclusive rights, the photo - artist does not always lose the right to use individual photos of a series. The Higher Regional Court of Cologne decided with judgement of the 21.12.2011 (File Number 6 U 118/11) in favour of the artist. Though the right of use was transferred to the publishing company by the artist for a certain book project, the publisher cannot forbid the author from using the pictures in the absence of a suitable alternative agreement.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in a 9-0 decision that patent applicants can introduce new evidence when challenging a patent examiner’s rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 145. The Supreme Court clarified that there are no evidentiary bars other than those articulated in the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

This article is dealing with Parallel import of Tommy Hilfiger goods to Israel. The incidents of parallel import are increasing in our country. Many brand names are being imported not only by the exclusive/official importers, but by others as well.

In certain cases it can happen that multiple written warnings about copyright infringements are issued. Due to progressively increasing product piracy and the mounting, protection against intellectual property is more important than ever. Properties with corresponding protection rights can often be applied through a written warning.

In the event that the principal interest of any community trademark more than a federal trademark is in question, then the day of registration is relevant but not the exact time. The actual precise moment of the specific brand registration really should not be taken into consideration.

The higher regional court of Munich (judgment from the 02.07.2012 U K 4842/08) had to decide on the protection of trademarks within the scope of so-called selective distribution systems. In the case at hand, a famous brand wanted to protect its image from unwanted Internet sales. The enterprise for sporting goods considered a ban on so-called "selective distribution systems".