Indian Trademark Statistics for November (Fourth Week) 2018, Discovery Brand Now in India, LG Electronics Files Trademarks for Foldable Phones, Aaj Tak Wins a Trademark Battle, Surname Trademark Infringement, and more, brought to you by the Trademark Attorneys at BananaIP (BIP) Counsels.
TRADEMARK QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol whichis the brand image”– Walter Landor
INDIAN TRADEMARK STATISTICS
The Indian Trademark Office have had a mixed week with respect to…
Copyright protects original, creative expressions on a tangible form. All three requirements, originality, creativity, and expression on a tangible form have low thresholds, and are easily satisfied by almost, all writings. As long as the writer's work is independently created, not copied; it has minimal creativity, a pinch at least; and the writing is on a tangible form such as paper, electronic medium, etc., copyright protection automatically begins. Expression is what matters for copyright protection, and impression is irrelevant.
Ideas and…
This post was first published on April 4, 2010.
This is in furtherance of Mrs. Vinita Radhakrishnan's post regarding the US District Court decision on BRCA gene patents.
Under the US Patent Law, anything that exists in nature is not patentable subject matter. This is also referred to as 'Product of Nature Doctrine'. The test for determining whether something exists in nature or not as laid down in Chakrabarty's case is whether a hand of man is involved in creating…
This post was first published on April 1, 2010.
I’m still in denial of the summary judgment ruling provided by Judge Robert W. Sweet of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Association for Molecular Pathology v. USPTO on March 29th 2010. Looks like all that I read, understood and was convinced that gene patents demands a revisit. The 156 pages summary judgment that was issued on this Monday has for sure taken me by surprise.…
This post was first published on March 26, 2010.
An Intellectual Property (IP) Policy setting out the IP goals of a company in the light of its business goals plays a very important role in enabling the company to acquire competitive advantage from its IP. The IP Policy must lay down the framework in light of the company's IP strategy. Most IP policies cover aspects such as generation, protection, ownership, utilization, management, and commercialization of IP. They also include…
This post was first published on March 16, 2010.
Contributed by Prof . Madabhushi Sridhar
The print media comprises of newspapers, books both fiction and non-fiction. The copyright law regulating rights over economic benefits of ‘owners’ of electronic media are totally different in its impact compared to that of authors in print media. Electronic media refers to TV, radio, music album publishers, Internet, or online publishers, compute programme writing industry, etc. In electronic media, the investments are high, production process…
This post was first published on March 16, 2010.
The interface between the right to know and limited monopoly over creative expressions to the authentic owner represent conflicts of interests. Proprietorial concerns on one hand and the social interests on the other need to be reconciled in almost every area where individual rights conflict with social concerns. If the copyright is considered as an extension of the right of speech and expression, it contradicts another fundamental right, i.e., right to…
This post was first published on March 1, 2010.
Claims draw the boundary to the invention that is being claimed. The boundary that is being drawn must be carefully done in order to ensure that the claims serve their purpose. The point here is that every claim must have a specific purpose and must be targeted to a potentially infringing product or process, or be targeted to protect a specific implementation (in case of defensive approach). In order for the practitioner…
This post was first published on February 25, 2010.
On reading Siddharth’s post on the 19th February decision (G02/08) from the Enlarged Board of Appeal regarding the Swiss type claims, I got motivated to write something about the Swiss type claims and the reason for its birth and death.
Like in India, Method of Treatment and Method of diagnosis (in vivo) has always been non patentable subject matter in Europe (Article 52(4)). Furthermore, before the concept of Absolute Novelty was introduced by…
This post was first published on February 24, 2010.
If the 19th February decision (G02/08) from the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) at the EPO is to be simplistically interpreted, “Swiss” Type claims are indeed history.
As most of our readers must be aware of the nature of a “Swiss” type of claim language. A “Swiss” type claim is essentially used to cover the so called Second, Third and Subsequent uses/medical indications of a known substance or composition. Taking our readers a…