Don’t Neglect Forum Selection and Choice of Law Provisions When Drafting or Litigating Restrictive Covenants
Will The USPTO Codify Its Discretionary Determination Of Deciding Whether To Institute AIA Trials?
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Issues New Examination Guidelines in view of Booking.com
In the recent Booking.com case (see the IP Law Trends article here discussing that case), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a trademark consisting of the combination of a generic term and a generic top-level domain, like “.com,” is not automatically generic. In addition, such terms are not automatically non-generic either.
Prior to the Booking.com decision, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had been automatically rejecting attempts to register such trademarks. Given the updated…
How the Australian High Court Found that Refurbished Ink Cartridges do not Infringe Seiko Patents
Recently, I wrote about the decision of the High Court in Calidad Pty Ltd v Seiko Epson Corporation [2020] HCA 41, with particular focus on the Court’s finding, by a 4-3 majority, that the first sale of a patented product exhausts the patentee’s exclusive rights in that product. In this article, I will look at the other aspect of the Court’s decision, namely its finding (again by 4-3 majority) that Epson printer ink cartridges…
Copyright Issues Using Photographs and Videos on Websites and Social Media
In today’s internet-driven economy, businesses recognize the importance of using digital content to reach consumers. However, this often creates unique intellectual property issues – including potential copyright infringement questions.
Photographs and videos are amongst the most effective digital content – garnering significantly more likes, comments and click-thoughts on social media than text-based posts alone. While the use of photographs and videos presents an enormous marketing advantage, it also raises additional potential for legal exposure where…
COVID Update – October Filings Down, as Pandemic Pain not Shared Equally Among Attorney Firms
Last month I reported that, against the trend of 2020, September was a busy month for Australian patent filings, with standard applications up by 8.1% on the same month in 2019. (In fact, following more recent additions and corrections in IP Australia’s records, the increase is even higher, at 9.2%.) But, sadly, any optimism this might have generated was short-lived, with October filings down by 7.9% on last year. Numbers of new filings…
China’s 2020 Patent Law Reform and Patent Linkage System
Patent Law Reform
We discussed the second draft of proposed amendments to the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) Patent Law in our previous blog post here. Since then, on 17 October 2020 the PRC National People’s Congress (“NPC”) approved most of the amendments, though the law as passed is different from the draft in two respects:
A minimal statutory damages is re-introduced. The current Patent Law has a minimum statutory damages of RMB10,000 (approximately…
Biosimilar Clinical Updates
Over the past two weeks, there have been a number of announced clinical studies and updates from biosimilar developers around the world.
On November 9, Shanghai based Henlius Biotech, Inc. announced the start of its Phase I clinical trial of HLX14, the company’s biosimilar to Prolia® (denosumab). According to the announcement, the Phase I trial will consist of two parts. Part 1 will consist of comparing the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of HLX14…
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Stay Safe.…
National Advertising Division Resolves High Profile Advertising Dispute
Most people, attorneys and non-attorneys alike, have heard of consumer protection agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC. Likely fewer, however, have heard of the National Advertising Division, or NAD. In short, the NAD operates as the advertising industry’s internal regulatory agency. The NAD monitors truthfulness and accuracy in advertising, and even foresees a voluntary dispute resolution process between advertisers.
Recently, two high profile entities brought their dispute in front of the NAD. The…