In this article, we look at two recent trade mark opposition decisions. These remind us of the many issues that need to be considered when comparing trade marks. They also highlight the growing importance of Chinese brands.The first involves a case that was before the European Union IP Office (“EUIPO”). In this case, the Taiwanese company Wawei filed an EU trade mark application for Wawei for food and drink in classes 29, 30 and 32 ...
There’s an interesting trade mark dispute under way about UGG. It touches on a range of IP issues – geographical indications, generic terms, country-of-origin brands and Chinese manufacture.Many readers will know that UGG is a sheepskin boot originating from Australia. UGG has apparently been around since the1930s, when it was created to deal with the cold winters in Australia (the Blue Hills region of New South Wales apparently can get cold) ...
1. PATENT ENFORCEMENT 1.1 Before what tribunals can a patent be enforced against an infringer? Is there a choice between tribunals and what would influence a claimant’s choice? Patents are enforced against an infringer either through a civil action before the Regional Trial Court (“RTC”) or an administrative action before the Bureau of Legal Affairs (“BLA”) of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (“IPOPHL”) ...
Last month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its "Regulatory Sandbox – Lessons Learned Report". In the Report, the FCA evaluated the progress of the UK financial regulatory sandbox during its first year of operation and tentatively concluded that the initiative has so far been a success ...
Last week, the House Republicans unveiled their highly anticipated plan for tax reform. Although clients should not rush into planning based on the House plan, it is important to be aware of potential changes in the tax code. In particular, business owners and individual high net worth clients should be prepared for the adverse and beneficial aspects of the proposed plan because the plan is intended to be effective for tax years beginning January 1, 2018 ...
Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Security Exchange Commission’s (Commission’s) 2015 pay ratio rule (Final Rule) required public companies to disclose the annual total compensation of the median employee (excluding the CEO), the annual CEO compensation and the ratio of those amounts ...
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) provided a safe harbor to shield website owners, ISP’s, and other online service providers from certain claims for copyright infringement based on user generated content. This safe harbor has been very successful ...
A new item has been added to the extensive catalogue of the firm’s publications. In our Outlook on law and business in Poland we discuss trends in changes in the law, such as increased regulatory pressure and increased penalisation of commerce. These are illuminated by concrete examples from practice and conclusions concerning the consequences of these phenomena that can be expected to occur or are already happening ...
Afridi & Angell has recently successfully assisted two individuals in becoming forgotten. Put another way, we were able to convince the Dubai Financial Services Authority (the DFSA) that the names of the individuals should be removed from public documents available on the DFSA website. These included published regulatory actions (in the form of enforceable undertakings) and DFSA media releases ...
It has been almost two years since Republic Act No. 10667, otherwise known as the Philippine Competition Act (the PCA), took effect on August 8, 2015 ...
Central America is at an inflection point regarding acceptable compliance and conformity. Among all the anxiety and instability that change will bring, it is welcoming to see that separate disciplines are pushing towards similar objectives in Corporate Governance. A quick discussion on Director´s Responsibility provides a glimpse on how new Governance issues will reshape slanted interpretations of the law ...
The issue of the jurisdiction of the South African Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) to determine matters involving individuals and companies that don’t belong to the body has now been resolved by an agreement that has been made an order of the Supreme Court of Appeal in the case of Advertising Standards Authority v Herbex (Pty) Ltd ...
The recent spat between Yoko Ono and a Polish drinks company highlights the importance of registering trade marks.What happened in this matter was that John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, threatened a small Polish lemonade manufacturer with legal action. The issue? The product that the Polish company sells in a number of European countries is called John Lemon ...
South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”) has handed down an important trade mark judgment. The case of PepsiCo Inc v Atlantic Industries deals with the issues of distinctiveness and likelihood of confusion, with a special emphasis on sub-brands. There are a lot of important points in this short judgment, so I am going to quote liberally.The facts: PepsiCo applied to register the trade mark Pepsi Twist (with and without a device) for soft drinks ...
There was a time when companies were sceptical about IP protection in China, with the general impression being that the law was heavily weighted in favour of local companies, some of whom seemed to make a habit of hijacking foreign brands. But things have changed considerably over the past few years, and a recent trade mark development should further persuade African businesses that their IP rights, and particularly their trade marks, will be properly protected in China ...
Dubai is the fastest growing healthcare market within the GCC and is becoming an increasingly attractive sector for investors. In this inBrief article we explain the key drivers behind this growth and set out the options available to investors wishing to enter the Dubai healthcare market ...
On September 21, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued new guidance on compliance with pay ratio disclosure requirements, including an SEC release (“Interpretative Release”), commentary from the SEC staff in question and answer format (“Q&A”) and updated Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (“C&DIs”) ...
The UAE has issued substantive law on Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise Tax. Federal decree law No.8 of 2017 deals with VAT. The imposition of VAT will commence in the UAE from 1 January 2018 at a rate of 5%. The VAT law provides a framework for implementation of VAT in the UAE ...
As seen in IP Watchdog We’ve all seen a seemingly happy technology marriage end in acrimonious divorce. Often those things can be avoided by careful advance planning, and proper cultivation of the nascent and the resulting product, and a carefully articulated plan for alliance management ...
As seen in IPWatchdog If we are to encourage invention and promote investment in innovation and the formation of new enterprises, we must provide a system of laws that recognize intellectual property as having all the attributes of other forms of personal private property. On Licensing In his seminal work “On War”, Karl Von Clausewitz described war as merely the continuation of politics by other means ...
September 22, 2017 Dear Madam or Sir, We hereby inform you that recently Federal Law dated 01.07.2017 No. 155-FZ (“155-FZ”) and Federal Law dated 18.07.2017 No. 165-FZ (“165-FZ”) have been adopted and became effective, introducing significant amendments to Federal Law dated 29.04.2008 No ...
In line with the state policy set out in the Philippines Constitution to recognise the indispensable role of the private sector in national growth, encourage private enterprise and provide incentives to attract needed investment, the Philippine government has long resorted to public-private partnerships (PPPs) to address problems of national interest ...
The Form ADV amendments adopted August 25, 2016 become effective October 1, 2017. Therefore, advisers filing an initial Form ADV or an amendment to an existing Form ADV will be required to provide responses to the Form ADV revisions beginning October 1, 2017. Advisers that may be required to make an other-than-annual amendment filing beginning October 1, 2017 have noted that in certain cases the information may not be available to respond to the revised Form ADV ...
On 15 September 2017, the South African Minister of Economic Development, Ebrahim Patel, published Government Notices no. 1003 and 1005, which announced increases to the intermediate merger thresholds and merger filing fees. These increases will be effective from 1 October 2017 ...
If you have a credit report, there is a good chance that you are one of the 143 million American consumers whose sensitive personal information was exposed in a data breach at Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies ...
