AWA

Banner image with text: 'Stay informed with the latest IP news' and the following words listed: Insights, Interviews, Webinars.

PCT to the rescue

By AWA | Posted on April 22, 2014

According to Wikipedia, “time to market is the length of time it takes from a product being conceived until its being available for sale“. However, the success of the product can often not be determined until the product has been on the market for a period of time. For some products, the success is immediate,...

Tags: EQE, European Patent Attorney

The (trade) secret of success

By AWA | Posted on April 8, 2014

We have all heard of success stories such as the Coca-Cola recipe and the Google search algorithm. Many companies value their trade secrets and consider them important for competitiveness and innovative performance. Although the general understanding is that trade secrets are good for business, there seem to be many incorrect assumptions about their legal protection....

Tags: EU, trade secrets

Changed conditions regarding the possibility to register “geographical” trademarks

By AWA | Posted on February 6, 2014

As you might have heard before, a fundamental requirement for registering a trademark is that the trademark is distinctive, meaning that it must have the ability of distinguishing the goods or services provided from the goods and services of others. The Swedish Trademark Act holds that a trademark might lack distinctiveness inter alia when it...

Tags: geographical origin, sweden, trademarks

Wider scope of protection for Swedish patents?

By AWA | Posted on November 20, 2013

Last week the Swedish government referred an amendment of the Swedish patent law to the Council on Legislation for reconsideration. According to the suggested amendment, patent applications filed in English need not be translated into Swedish. Instead, they can be granted in English. For applicants filing a Swedish patent application in English and wishing to...

Tags: EPO, Europe, patent application, sweden

Reform and rebellion in the trademark world

By AWA | Posted on August 12, 2013

This spring, the EU commission published their proposals for a reform of the Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 on the Community trade mark and the Directive 2008/95/EC to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks. An earlier version of the proposals had been leaked ahead of time, but by the time...

Tags: PTO

Birthday musings: Designing design strategy

By AWA | Posted on July 16, 2013

Earlier this year, the community design celebrated its tenth birthday. On 1 April 2003, the first community design was registered in Alicante and since then more than 690,000 designs have been registered. The yearly filings increase by a rate of no less than 78,000 a year. I think it’s fair to say that the community...

Beer lovers sue for trademark dilution

By AWA | Posted on April 26, 2013

Trademarks are, among other things, a guarantee for a certain level of quality. If the quality slips, the consumers may go for a different, competing product. But sometimes consumers seem to stick to their favorites. An unusual lawsuit has been filed in the US, where consumers have filed a $5 million class action against Anheuser-Busch. The...

Tags: Anheuser-Busch

Recent contributors

Laura Stravinskaite

Laura Stravinskaite

Senior Associate, Attorney at Law

Ai-Leen Lim

Ai-Leen Lim

Partner, Attorney at Law, Group Vice President

Ashley Zhao

Ashley Zhao

Partner, Attorney at Law, Business Area Manager

Troels Peter Rørdam

Troels Peter Rørdam

Senior Counsel, European Patent Attorney

Mikkel Roed Trier

Mikkel Roed Trier

Partner, European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative, Business Area Manager