News
New Office for Harmonisation inthe Internal Market (OHIM)President António Campinos hassignalled his intention to embracean enforcement role for theagency, promising to work withnational offices to create a unitedfront against counterfeiters.
The British Brands Group andInstitute of Trademark Attorneys(ITMA) have joined forces to voiceserious concerns at the approachthat the United Kingdom’scoalition government is taking tointellectual property, withtrademarks often absent frompolitical debate.
The board of the InternetCorporation for AssignedNames and Numbers (ICANN)has resolved to meet withgovernment representatives toclear up their remainingconcerns over trademarkprotection in the proposedinfinite generic top-leveldomain (gTLD) space.
For regular jurisdictional updates, see WTR Daily. Delivered straight to your inbox, WTR’s regular email news service provides legal updates, industry analysis and the editor’s pick of the best trademark content from around the globe.
Albihns.Zacco AB has beenexpelled from the Associationof Swedish Intellectual PropertyLaw Firms (SEPAF) for breach ofthe organisation’s ethical rules.
Country correspondent
As the Internet becomes increasinglypopular, online trademark infringement isbecoming more common. As a result,traditional trademark protection methodshave had to be adapted in order to take theunique characteristics of the onlineenvironment into consideration.
The Internet provides new means forinfringing registered rights. Such activitiesstarted with registration of domain namesincorporating a trademark – widely knownas cybersquatting (fortunately, there hasbeen much progress in this field) andtyposquatting – and evolving to trademarkand copyright infringement through,among other things, keyword advertising,gripe sites and phishing scams.
Companies are discovering that theirtrademarks are being used in ways thatcould not have been imagined a few yearsago. For example, companies can purchaseand use a competitor’s trademark as a‘keyword’, and then use these keywords totrigger internet advertising for their ownproducts and services.
Since the early 1990s the Internet hasbecome incredibly popular; according toNetcraft research, as of October 1 2010 therewere more than 232 million active websites.It is impossible to imagine life without theunlimited opportunities that it offers. However, people use the Internet formany different purposes, some of whichmay be against the law.
It is Saturday afternoon and Journey’s iconicsong “Don’t Stop Believin’” is playing on aUS college student’s computer. Next up onthe playlist is something by Dave Matthews,followed by U2, Michael Jackson, The RollingStones and The Beatles: a well-thought-outplaylist of tunes that have remainedpopular throughout the years.
According to research recently published byMaria de las Heras on www.elpais.com,around 30 million people in Mexico use theInternet, with each person spending anaverage of three and a half hours a weekconnected to the Web. Considering thatMexico has a population of approximately106 million, this means that about 28% ofMexicans use the Internet.
The Google AdWords service and keywords ingeneral are a current hot topic in the internetdomain. For many years consumers havefound the Internet to be the best marketplacefor all kinds of goods and services. Inparticular, search engines help consumers tolocate products from particular brandsamong all those available in cyberspace.
For many businesses, a high ranking oninternet search engine results is vital indirecting internet users to their websites.Google’s AdWords programme has proved avaluable tool for many businesses inattracting internet users to their websites.However, as a significant proportion ofinternet searches are conducted againstterms that are trademarks, Google elected toinclude trademarks within its AdWordsprogramme, allowing anyone to bid foranother party’s mark for use as an AdWord.
Online advertising is a major industry. TheInteractive Advertising Bureau of Canadareports that in 2009 Canadian onlineadvertising revenues were C$1.82 billion, andforecasts that in 2010 revenues will rise toC$2.1 billion.In recent years the tension betweenonline advertising and consumer privacyhas given rise to several controversies.
Features
An internal policy on social media use becomes astrong weapon when policing external use of yourbrand, but communication is key – with both internalstaff and those actively policing the online world
The World Trademark Review 1000 will presentexhaustive rankings of the leading law firms,attorney firms and individual practitioners offeringhigh-level trademark advice in more than 50jurisdictions. In this exclusive preview, we reveal themost cited firms in terms of the number of officesand individual practitioners identifiedas leaders in the field across the globe
Brands that are not used but kept alive in companybooks are not dead – they are wasted money-makingopportunities
Despite careful planning, the launch of Russia’stop-level domain (TLD) proved problematic andhighlights some of the trademark issues that canarise during TLD launches
Many trademarks have fallen victim to the recession,creating an opportunity for those seeking toreanimate abandoned marks and use them forcommercial gain. While possible in mostcircumstances under US law, there are exceptions
Resurrecting disused brands requires a proper analysisof product lines, industry trends and the consumermindset. A survey of previous attempts to revive brandsmay help in predicting the likelihood of success
As web technology advances and enables brand owners to investigate the sale of counterfeit goods online more meticulously than ever before, how is the burgeoning market in anti-counterfeiting search services evolving?
Following the introduction of internationaliseddomain names, brand owners need to take clear stepsto ensure that their domain name strategy reflects thenew multi-character environment, at both top andsecondary levels
While they may appear to be two sides of the same coin,moving from an in-house trademark role into privatepractice requires proper consideration, with bothpersonal and professional factors coming into play
WTR asked a range of trademark professionals,industry representatives and legal specialists tohighlight the issues that they felt were mostsignificant in 2010 and what they anticipate willbe the major developments in 2011
The divergent treatment of survey evidence indifferent jurisdictions poses significant challenges increating a survey that will work internationally.However, this is not impossible and certain tactics,carefully deployed, can yield positive results
Thanks to elaborate brand-building strategies, thetrademark service provider sector is booming. Someinsiders even suggest that it now competes on anequal footing with the legal profession. WTR charts theevolution of this market and considers how its futuremay unfold
The new international standard on brand valuationshas been viewed by some as bringing new clarity to acomplex and fragmented industry. But will ISO 10668really cut through the confusion surrounding brandvaluation techniques?
Few disputes over television format rights havecentred on trademark rights, but format ownersneed to approach the creation and protection oftheir formats in the same way as they would anyinternational brand launch
Columns
Cloud computing creates many legalissues, from jurisdictional questions toprivacy and security concerns. For brandowners, the cloud can be an especiallyfrustrating place, but by understandingthe legal and business issues involved, IPrisks can be balanced and mitigated
No sooner do brand owners succeed inshutting down an infringing website thanit pops up in a new location. A proposedUS bill aims to step up the fight againstonline counterfeiters
Just when trademark lawyers thought thatthey had domain names under control,here come social network usernames. Isthe trademark industry prepared?
