International - Employ Media LLC, which operates the sponsored top-level domain ‘.jobs’, has announced its intention to liberalise the ‘.jobs’ sTLD. Employ Media has elected to use the Trademark Clearinghouse to support the sunrise period and, therefore, this will be the first test of the TMCH systems and process on an actual live TLD.
United States - In JT Colby & Company Inc v Apple Inc, Apple has defeated claims that its IBOOKS mark for e-reader software infringed the plaintiffs’ common law rights in the mark IBOOKS for use with a publishing imprint. The case is instructive in showing the value of a federal registration and/or having strong protectable rights before embarking on an infringement case.
Romania - In Sertic Vanja v SC Look Media Advertising SRL, the Court of Appeal of Bucharest has upheld a decision of the High Court of Bucharest in a case involving registered Community designs. The decision is interesting as a precedent with respect to rights acquired after the filing of a court action.
United States - Software company Fortres Grand’s claim that a fictional product appearing in Warner Bros film The Dark Knight Rises infringes on its trademark rights has been dismissed by a Northern District of Indiana court. However, the potential problem of fictional product names that are the same or similar to real-life brand names could arise for any trademark owner and the dispute offers a number of takeaways.
Jack Ellis | May 21 2013
United States - The issue of trademark bullying remains divisive and the USPTO has written to WTR to respond to criticism of follow-up activities to the Department of Commerce’s report on litigation tactics. The split in opinions illustrates the continued challenge in creating a coherent industry stance on bullying.
Trevor Little | May 20 2013
International - A third of US consumers would not purchase a branded product if they knew the brand belonged to a Chinese company, a recent survey has found. The findings underline the difficulty that Chinese brand owners face in penetrating the US market – so what can be done from a trademark perspective to gain a foothold?
Jack Ellis | May 16 2013
Featured partner
Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals
The initiative of a multinational group of professionals to meet and share experiences on a regular basis resulted in the establishment of the non-profit Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals. ASTP is practitioners and members-focused and is growing rapidly.
Our association consists of more than 600 members, covering 41 countries. The majority of our members are technology transfer professionals at public knowledge institutions. Our mission is to professionalise and promote technology and knowledge transfer between the European science base and industry.