Tag >> Trade Marks

The 35th Federal Court issued a decision on the case between the Brazilian company LG Informática Ltd and a global manufacturer LG.
According to court LG Informática Ltd use the name commercially earlier than registered marks owned by LG Electronics Group
in Brazil. Therefore, the court considers that these marks should be cancelled in their part of computers and computer equipment in class 9. Moreover, 5 new LG's applications for trade mark should be rejected by the Patent Office in the country in respect of those goods. For other classes, the court allowed the registration of marks.
Most likely, this decision will be appealed because it is seriously affecting the interests of LG Electronics Group for goods such as computers and computer equipment, where the company is very strong.

 


Duncanbucknell.com reported for available database with court decisions on intellectual property in China.
The database provides information on the outcome of court cases, what were the decisions of the court, what was the compensation and so on.
Database that has a version in English can be found here.

Intellectual Property Planet


Mexico, as most civil-law countries, follows the first-to-file principle; it means that the first to file has priority to obtain the trademark registration, hence, to be acknowledged as proprietor of the trademark.

Nevertheless, Mexico acknowledges certain rights and defenses for the users of non-registered trademarks; Mexico also allows applicants to claim a date of commencement of use in Mexico, in order to obtain some benefits after the issuance of the trademark registration. In any case, these rights and defenses should not be construed as common-law rights (there is no common-law in Mexico) or exceptions to the first-to-file principle: the first applicant has priority to get the trademark registration, no matter who claimed the earliest date of first use or if the earliest applicant


The INTA Bulletin of July 209 (Vol. 64 No. 12) informed that the International Trademark Association (INTA) filed an amicus brief with the Specialized Chamber in Intellectual Property of the Federal Court of Tax and Administrative Affairs (FCTAA), in connection with an appeal filed against the Mexican Patent and Trademark Office (MPTO).

According to the bulletin, the basic purpose of the amicus brief was to persuade the FCTAA to "reverse the decision rendered by IMPI (the Spanish acronym for the MPTO) and to interpret the law to provide Mexican trademark owners with the right to seek cancellation of a registration on the ground of bad faith, a right currently enjoyed by foreign trademark owners."

Of course, as a Mexican lawyer, it was interesting to learn that INTA was involved in a Mexican


The Mexican statutes do not stipulate any provision regarding trademark coexistence agreements and letters of consent. Nevertheless, these instruments have been widely used to prevent or overcome objections from the Mexican Patent and Trademark Office (MPTO) associated to applications for trademarks identical or confusingly similar to earlier registered or applied ones, protecting the same or similar products or services.

The Industrial Property Law provides that the MPTO will reject a trademark application when the trademark is identical or confusingly similar to an earlier registered or applied one, to cover the same or similar goods or services. Owners of existing registrations are allowed to apply for the registration of an identical trademark to protect goods/services similar to those


 

The renewal of trademark registrations is an important aspect of the maintenance of any IP portfolio. Making the right decision about renewing (or not renewing) a trademark allows the proprietor to maximize the value of its trademarks, or cut unnecessary expenses.

In this post, I am explaining the basic aspects about renewing trademarks in Mexico, calling the reader's attention to two issues that should be carefully considered when the trademark owner decides to renew a trademark registration in our country.

The basics about trademark renewal in Mexico

A Mexican trademark registration is valid for a ten years term, counted from the filing date in Mexico, regardless the priority, registration or first-use date. The registration may be renewed an unlimited number of times for ten years


(Originally posted at Russian Patents blog

No doubt, you’ve heard the buzz already - Russian company Superfone and its president Oleg Teterin claim they own the rights to reproduce ;-) emoticon and similar derivatives like :-) and :) in spite of their being in public use for at least 15 years.

Associated Press says that “The Rospatent federal patent agency (aka Russian Patent Office) tells the RIA-Novosti news agency that the symbol was trademarked only as part of the company’s brand and has not been trademarked on its own.” - but AP, RIA-Novosti and Russian Patent Office representative are all wrong - Teterin INDEED has gotten rights for pure ;-) emoticon and not for a combined mark - take a look at RU2007719479 trademark certificate which clearly shows it:

smiley emoticon trademark russia

smiley emoticon trademark


[Originally published in Russian Patents blog ]

Today I was responding to an inquiry from Israel re process and cost of trademark registration in Russia, and upon finishing my letter I thought that this matter might be of interest to somebody else, so I’m posting it here.

Daniel wrote:

I anticipate the client will want to know a bottom-line price,
so I would be much obliged if you could run me through, A to Z, on the costs of one
trademark registration in Russia (assuming of course it is not contested). (In
actuality, the client is seeking to register a number of trademarks).

Here is a (updated) quick guide to trademark registration in Russia.

Prior to filing trademark application in the territory of Russian Federation,
it is necessary to conduct search on identity and similarity in the


The Mexican statute provides explicit protection for well-known trademarks since the Law of Patents and Trademarks of 1976. Before the 1976 statute, there is evidence of direct application of the stipulations stated in Paris Convention to fill the gaps in the Mexican statute, but none of the published decisions refer to well-known trademarks.

On June 16, 2005, the Federal Congress amended the Industrial Property Law to introduce important modifications to the provisions regarding the protection of well-known trademarks.

Before the amendment, there were two ways a trademark could be acknowledged as well-known in Mexico:

a) If the Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial or Mexican Patent and Trademark Office (MPTO) rejected a trademark application, arguing that it was identical or


In a first-to-file country, such as Mexico, one way of foreseeing if a trademark is available for use and registration is conducting a trademark search with the databases of the Mexican Patent and Trademark Office (MPTO).

There are two main databases that may be consulted in a trademark search: the Industrial Property Gazette that the MPTO issues on monthly basis, and the online phonetic database of the MPTO.

Foreign entities that offer search services usually obtain the information from the Industrial Property Gazette, while local agents often use the online database. Unlike the trademarks database of the USPTO or the OHIM, there is no free access to the trademarks database of the MPTO to conduct searches;  it is necessary to have a prepaid account (Update: Starting June 1, 2009, the Comment (0) Read More...


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