AWA Point
Counterfeit pharmaceuticals case settled without main hearing
By AWA | Posted on June 1, 2011
In April 2010 Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”), the manufacturer of the erectile dysfunction pharmaceutical Cialis, was informed that the Swedish customs had ceased a consignment of products marked and/or shaped in such a way that it was suspected to infringe the intellectual property rights of Lilly. The consignment was addressed to an individual, herein...
Tags: EEA, Infringement, Pharmaceuticals
A Favourite in Trademark Law: Repackaging – now gassy
By AWA | Posted on April 14, 2011
Danish courts are traditionally reluctant to ask preliminary questions on the interpretation of EU-legislation. Recently, the Supreme Court has done so, and quite comprehensively. During the 1990’s there were countless cases all over Europe regarding repackaging of products, especially medicines and printer toner cartridges, after parallel imports from one state to another. This case is a new...
The EPO starts cooperation with Google to provide machine translation of patents
By AWA | Posted on March 29, 2011
On 24 March, the EPO and Google signed an agreement to collaborate on machine translation of patents. Using Google Translate technology, the EPO will offer translations into 28 European languages, and into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. In order to be able to adapt the machine translation to the specific language used in patents, Google...
Tags: EPO, Google, Translation
Most comprehensive patent reform in almost 60 years approved by US senate
By Niklas Mattsson | Posted on March 11, 2011
Most comprehensive patent reform in almost 60 years approved by US senate Historic breakthrough as USA gets to grips with “first-to-invent”, the enormous backlog of patent applications and simplifying procedures for filing patents in the USA. On Tuesday 8 March 2011, the US Senate voted to approve the nation’s most comprehensive patent reform since 1952,...
A brighter future for the EU patent
By Anders Heebøll-Nielsen | Posted on December 13, 2010
A brighter future for the EU patent 11 EU member states have decided to move towards an EU patent under an enhanced cooperation aiming to reduce costs of patenting in the EU. Progress towards implementation of the long desired EU patent has until now been hindered by disagreements between the EU member states regarding translation...
Supplementary protection certificates for plant protection products
By AWA | Posted on November 15, 2010
11 November 2010 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a preliminary ruling in the case C-229/09 that Supplementary protection certificates for plant protection products may validly be obtained based on provisional marketing authorisations In this recent decision by the Court of Justice (CJ) it was ruled that a supplementary protection certificate (SPC)...
EU survey now open for participation
By Vibeke Warberg Rohde | Posted on August 18, 2010
EU survey now open for participation Every two years the European Commission conducts a survey in order to identify the most important obstacles met by EU citizens applying for and enforcing intellectual property rights in countries outside the EU. The 2010 survey is now open and anyone may participate using the online questionnaire found here....
China to drive on to the Patent Prosecution Highway
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on June 24, 2010
According to a USPTO press release, the intellectual property offices of China (SIPO) and USA (USPTO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 19 May 2010, which includes establishing a bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreement between the two offices. The PPH agreement will be SIPO’s first, thus driving China onto the Patent Prosecution Highway...
IP in China? It’s not all bad
By AWA | Posted on June 7, 2010
Recent statistics on the outcomes of reported IP litigations in the most important courts in China are encouraging: The total number of trademark-related cases in 2009 handled by the Chinese courts was 6,906, up almost 11 per cent from 2008. 2008 was up by 79 per cent in relation to 2007. Administratively, the numbers are...
Is use of a Community trademark in one of the EU member states sufficient?
By AWA | Posted on May 31, 2010
As is well known, a Community trademark (CTM) must be put into genuine use within five years of the registration date in order to maintain protection. When the Community trademark was launched in 1996, it was decided politically that use “in the Community” was satisfied by use in one member state. This decision was laid...
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