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UK Trade Mark Owners win Landmark Case Against ISPs

Nov 14 2014

ISPs Ordered to Block Websites Selling Counterfeit Products

In a landmark decision, a judge of the High Court of Justice, England and Wales has ruled that internet service providers (ISPs) in the United Kingdom may be ordered to take all reasonable steps to prevent or restrict access to websites selling counterfeit goods.

The case was brought by luxury brand owner Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA (Richemont), which relevantly owns the Cartier and Montblanc brands and associated trade marks, against the five largest ISPs in the United Kingdom.

Next Steps in the Dance: Amgen Files Citizen Petition at FDA Requesting Mandatory Compliance with BPCIA Patent Procedures

Nov 13 2014

Amgen, Inc. has brought the discussion of the procedure for biosimilar applications from the courts to the FDA by filing a Citizen Petition (Docket No. FDA 2014 P 1771) on October 29, 2014, requesting that the FDA mandate compliance with the framework for biosimilar applications laid out by the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act.

To read the full alert, click here.

High Court Confirms That Extension of Time Provisions Apply to Requests for Pharmaceutical Extensions of Term

Nov 11 2014

In a recent decision, the High Court of Australia has ruled that the extension of time provisions of the Australian Patents Act 1990 (Act) can be used to extend the time for requesting an extension of term of a patent relating to a pharmaceutical substance.

The dispute was based on a request by Lundbeck to extend the term of Australian patent 623144. The extension of term request was filed after the applicable deadline and was, therefore, accompanied by an application for an extension of time. Read More

Left without a Partner: Amgen Sues Sandoz for Refusing to Dance in Accordance with BPCIA Patent Procedures

Nov 05 2014

There has been a lot of curiosity within the biologics industry regarding how the “patent dance” procedures of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (“BPCIA”) would operate. This interest was piqued in July 2014 when Sandoz Inc.’s (“Sandoz”) biosimilar application for a biosimilar of Amgen Inc.’s (“Amgen”) Neupogen® was the first accepted by FDA under section 351(k) of the Public Health Service Act. Apparently, Sandoz has refused to engage in the “patent dance” in accordance with the BPCIA, leaving Amgen without a dance partner. Amgen did not take kindly to being stranded on the dance floor and has opted to sue Sandoz for its allegedly unlawful refusal to follow the BPCIA’s patent resolution procedures.

To read the full alert, please click here.

Downloaded Dallas Buyers Club? The Bill is in the Mail

Nov 04 2014

The film Dallas Buyers Club won critical acclaim and earned Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively. Now the rights holder of the film, Dallas Buyers Club LLC, is looking to pursue Australians who it believes have illegally downloaded the film.

The company has issued proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against iiNet Limited and four other internet service providers, seeking orders to have them disclose the identities of the alleged pirates. iiNet has indicated that it will defend the action. Read More

DATA, DATABASE, METADATA, BIG DATA, PERSONAL DATA, DATA MINING…..

Oct 30 2014

Because we are besieged by terms that include the word “data,” the phrase “big data” does not immediately capture attention. Big Data is comprised of little data, but it is more than a database. Data is shorthand for information stored digitally. The world is awash with information and we have not yet approached the high tide of information, of data, that is coming.

Each of us, as individuals, generates and is defined by data; and a subset of that is called personal data (with the subset being, roughly speaking, data identifying you or a device reasonably traceable to you). Our societal awareness of our personal data is rising as is legislation relating to how that is generated and managed. Read More

Parody Comes to the United Kingdom

Oct 29 2014

The United States has given us the Scary Movie films, Meet the Spartans and Date Movie. Why has the United Kingdom not produced anything similar? Maybe it is because they were not the greatest of films, but more likely it is because, up until 1 October 2014, the United Kingdom did not have a parody exception to copyright infringement. The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014 have come into force and state that “Fair dealing with a work for the purposes of caricature, parody or pastiche does not infringe copyright in the work”. Read More

Trademark Clearinghouse – First Annual Renewal Deadline Approaching

Oct 23 2014

The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) is the central repository for validated trademarks for the purpose of protecting brands under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) New Generic Top-Level Domains program (new gTLD program), permitting participation in both the Sunrise and Claims processes that ICANN established to give preference to brand owners. If your company was an early registrant in the TMCH, it is likely that your registrations had an effective date of November 5, 2013, which is the date that the TMCH went ‘live’. While the TMCH procedures provide for multi-year registrations, many registrants initially paid their US$150 fee for only a single year of registration. If so, your deadline to renew is November 5, 2014.

Is the Fit-out of Sales Premises a Trademark? Ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union

Oct 22 2014

In a recent case, the Court of Justice of the European Union (Court of Justice) ruled that a simple drawing of sales premises for goods, without any indication of dimensions or proportions, can be registered as a trademark for services involving provisions related to those goods, but which do not constitute an integral part of admitting them to trade. One of the conditions making it possible to register such a depiction as a trademark is that the depiction makes it possible for the services concerned to be differentiated from those of other businesses. A second condition is that the registration does not meet any of the grounds for refusal of a registration specified in Directive 2008/95/EC. Read More

U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Sustains First Fraud Claim Since In re Bose in 2009

Oct 21 2014

On September 30, 2014, in Nationstar Mortgage LLC v. Mujahid Ahmad, the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (Board) sustained a claim of fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the first time since the Federal Circuit issued its 2009 decision in In re Bose, upholding an opposition to the mark NATIONSTAR for various real estate brokerage, mortgage and management services.

In response to fraud allegations, Ahmad needed to show that he was using the NATIONSTAR mark with each of the services prior to the filing date of his in-use application. Read More

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