Legal issues, law and regulations concerning the world of IP.
Sound Marks in Australia
In September, IP Australia accepted for registration a trade mark described as “the Trade Mark consists of the sound of a fictitious character saying the word “Simples!” followed by a squeaking sound such as might be expected to be made by a Meerkat or other small animal”. You can listen to this trade mark here. This application was filed for an array of goods and services by the UK company BGL Group Limited. Read More
Employees often like to take a little with them when leaving employment, some might say as a ‘memento’, others might say as outright theft of the intellectual property of their employer. In a recent decision, an ex employee was ordered to pay his former employer AUD50,000 in damages for copying over 60GB of data prior to leaving his job to work for a competitor.
Research Affiliates LLC v Commissioner of Patents [2014] FCAFC 150
On 10 November 2014, the Australian Full Federal Court (Court) held that a method of creating an index of securities using a standard computer was a ‘scheme’, and, hence, not a patentable invention.
The Court applied the Australian High Court test from National Research Development Corporation v Commissioner of Patents (1959) 102 CLR 252 that a patentable invention must produce an “artificially created state of affairs”. The Court said that this test is not satisfied by mechanistic application of artificiality or physical effect, but by understanding the claimed invention as a matter of substance not form. Read More
A man was arrested by Hong Kong Customs (Customs) for uploading a large amount of suspected infringing copyright works to the internet for financial gain. The automatic monitoring system, called Lineament Monitoring System 1 Plus (LMS1+), searches discussion forums, captures evidence related to selected messages and performs automatic downloads for further analysis. LMS1+ alerts Customs officers of suspected cases to conduct a more thorough investigation. Read More
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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