Topic: General

CIIs – The Australian Full Court Encompass Decision

By Helen Macpherson (AU) and Harrison Ottaway (AU) on October 29, 2019 Posted in General, Patents

Overview The patentability of computer implemented inventions (CII) has long been a contentious topic in Australian patent law. A few months ago, we wrote about Justice Robertson’s decision in Rokt Pte Ltd v Commissioner of Patents, which overturned the Australian Patent Office’s rejection of a patent application for a CII relating to a digital advertising … Continue reading

Review of sugar labelling a sweet victory for health advocates, and yet more packaging and labelling changes required for business in Australia?

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Emily Hong on September 4, 2019 Posted in General

Shoppers reaching for a sweet, refreshing bottle of soft drink may soon find themselves confronted by the sour reality of 33 small icons of teaspoons – equivalent to the average sugar content of 1.25 litres of soft drink (see here). The Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (Forum) recently announced a review … Continue reading

Fakes welcome? IP protection lags behind for Indigenous artworks in Australia

By Helen Macpherson (AU) and Isobel Taylor (AU) on August 12, 2019 Posted in Copyright, General

In a symbolic win for Indigenous artists, the Federal Court of Australia has recently ordered a seller of fake Indigenous-style souvenirs to pay AU$2.3 million in pecuniary penalties for contraventions of the misleading and deceptive conduct provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). While the Court’s ruling appears to be a positive move in the … Continue reading

Calidad v Seiko – defining the scope of the implied licence

By Helen Macpherson (AU) and Harrison Ottaway (AU) on July 30, 2019 Posted in General

One of the more controversial questions in patent law is the extent to which a patentee may continue to exercise control over patent-protected goods after their sale. This question invokes competing tensions between the rights of the patentee and the rights of the purchaser to free enjoyment of goods they have purchased. In a number … Continue reading

Ghost of rulings past: why virtual designs are not yet covered by Australian IP law

By Isobel Taylor (AU) and Georgina Hey (AU) on July 15, 2019 Posted in General

Virtual or non-physical designs, which include graphical user interfaces and screen icons, are designs that impact the appearance of a product through software displayed on an electronic screen. Many of these designs have become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Well-known and familiar virtual designs range from the Snapchat ghost app button on our phones to … Continue reading

Enforcing Foreign Trademark Decisions in Canada

By Mark Edward Davis (CA) on June 19, 2019 Posted in General, Trademark

Foreign judgments in trademark cases are enforceable in Canada. The recent decision of Justice Perell in Dead End Survival, LLC v. Marhasin provides a succinct roadmap for doing so. The Court had no trouble enforcing a judgment from the US District Court which included both monetary and non-monetary relief: Dead End Survival’s judgment was for … Continue reading

PACTE law : Key provisions in the field of industrial property

By Clément Monnet on June 14, 2019 Posted in General

PACTE law : Key provisions in the field of industrial property The French law for the growth and transformation of companies, (the PACTE law, from its French acronym), was definitively adopted by the French Parliament on 11 April 2019. The text, the purpose of which is to promote the development and competitiveness of French companies, … Continue reading

Are you kicking goals when it comes to social media activity, or heading to the sin bin?

By Rebecca Brenikov (AU) and Alyson Poole (AU) on May 12, 2019 Posted in Advertising, Copyright, General

They say that a picture tells a thousand words. But as became apparent in Australia recently, posting a picture on social media can result in a thousand (derogatory and sexist) words. A photograph posted on Twitter by Seven AFL (taken by photographer Michael Wilson), resulted in Australian female AFLW star, Taylor Harris, hitting all the … Continue reading

Don’t Rokt the boat: developments in the patentability of computer implemented inventions in Australia

By Helen Macpherson (AU) and Isobel Taylor (AU) on May 7, 2019 Posted in General

With the continued rise of digital technologies and mining of big data, computer implemented inventions (CIIs) are being increasingly utilised in a wide range of industries. CIIs enable companies to deliver more personalised products and solutions to consumers, whether in the form of more personalised medical treatments and diagnostic tools in the pharmaceutical and healthcare … Continue reading

Brexit: trademarks and designs

By Clare Jackman (UK) on February 14, 2019 Posted in General

It won’t be news to you that there is still a great deal of uncertainty around Brexit and, with the March 29, 2019 looming, we do not yet know if the UK will exit in an orderly fashion (with a deal and with a transition period), obtain an extension of the negotiating period with a view to agreeing terms, crash out without a deal or, reverse the process altogether.… Continue reading

Bill C-86 – Tinkering with official marks in Canada

By Mat Brechtel (CA) on November 30, 2018 Posted in General

In addition to its more substantive changes to IP law, budget implementation Bill C-86 also takes the opportunity to fix a curious, and perhaps unintended, aspect of Canada’s official marks scheme. Official marks are marks that appear on the trademark register once they are adopted by a public authority. Unlike trademarks, which are subject to expungement … Continue reading

Final countdown: the date is set for implementing significant changes to Canadian trademark law

By Catherine Daigle (CA) and Karen MacDonald (CA) on November 15, 2018 Posted in General

The Canadian government has set down June 17, 2019 as the date when the most significant changes to Canada’s trademark law in over 50 years will finally be implemented.… Continue reading

Bill C-86 — significant changes to Canada’s IP regime

By Amy Grenon (CA) on November 2, 2018 Posted in Copyright, General, Trademark

The federal government’s recent omnibus budget bill, Bill C-86 tabled October 29th, 2018, proposes significant changes to Canada’s IP laws. Division 7 of the Bill is intended to implement many aspects of the government’s IP strategy announced in April 2018, and targets the Patent Act, the Trade-marks Act, and Copyright Act; provides for a new … Continue reading

Wolverhampton Wanderers

By Jonathan Ball (UK) on October 25, 2018 Posted in Copyright, General

Wolves bare their fangs over copyright infringement claim You’d think that newly promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers would have enough on their plate just ensuring survival in the Premiership. Unfortunately, the club now has another worry given that it has been sued in the intellectual property courts in London by an individual who claims copyright in the … Continue reading

No deal better than a bad deal?

By Farah Mukaddam (UK) on October 18, 2018 Posted in General

Latest guidance from the UK Government on implications of ‘no-deal’ Brexit for IP rights holders On September 24, 2018, the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) published a further series of technical notices on how intellectual property (IP) rights holders might be affected if the United Kingdom (UK) leaves the European Union (EU) in March 2019 … Continue reading

Amended Australian IP laws receive Royal Assent with little fanfare

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Isobel Taylor (AU) on September 24, 2018 Posted in Copyright, General, Trademark

On 24 August 2018, the creatively named Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 1 and Other Measures) Bill 2018 quietly received Royal Assent, with some parts of the new Act entering into force the following day. As the name indicates, the primary focus of the new legislation is to implement the recommendations made … Continue reading

What Brexit means for IP: The UK Law Society, the IP Bar, CIPA and CITMA weigh in on Brexit strategy

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Rebecca Brenikov (AU) on January 21, 2018 Posted in Advertising, General, Trademark

It’s no surprise that many in the professional and legal services industries are putting increasing thought into what the post-Brexit world will, or should, look like. The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) in the UK has been the latest body to put its two cents (or pennies) into the mix. Brand owners from all … Continue reading

Australia – No extensions for Swiss style Pharma Patents

By Helen Macpherson (AU) and Rohan Sridhar (AU) on August 31, 2017 Posted in Advertising, General

A Full Court of the Federal Court has confirmed that patents containing “Swiss-style” claims are outside the scope of the Australian patent term extension regime in its recent judgment of Commissioner of Patents v AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd [2017] FCAFC 129. What it means: Patents which claim methods or processes involving pharmaceutical substances cannot be extended … Continue reading

UPDATE | Reps Propose “Loser Pays” for Long-Shot Patent Suits

By Andrew Liddell (US) on September 4, 2012 Posted in General

On August 23, we reported on the recently proposed SHIELD Act which targets patent assertion entities (PAEs) by permitting courts to award attorney fees in some cases involving “computer patents.” A recent report by the Congressional Research Service cautions that the SHIELD Act may run afoul of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property … Continue reading

Reps propose “loser pays” for long-shot patent suits

By Andrew Liddell (US) and Saul Perloff (US) on August 23, 2012 Posted in General

Congressmen Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) have introduced the SHIELD Act (Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes, H.R. 6245) to combat the perceived threat of non-practicing entities (NPEs) to American innovation. Specifically, the Act would allow a court to award attorneys’ fees to a prevailing party in cases involving computer patents without … Continue reading