Columns
The online sale of counterfeit goods,particularly on auction sites such as eBay,is fast becoming one of the most taxingproblems faced by trademark owners. Oneway to combat this may be for the courtsto treat online auction sites the same waythey treat landlords whose tenants violatetrademark rights
It is hard to imagine corporate life these days without the Internet. In-house trademark counsel, however, must sometimes dream of those pre-web days when life was so much simpler
More and more companies outsource themanagement of their brand portfolio andwhile the advantages are obvious, thedrawbacks are plentiful too. In any case,the structure under which the portfolio ismanaged should be carefully considered
Some trademarks disappear from thetrademark registers because, victims oftheir own success, they have becomegeneric terms. The recent attempts byboth Google and Apple to stop thirdparties from using their marksinappropriately is a reminder of theneed for legal campaigns on how touse trademarks that are both friendlyand educational
News
Features
Protecting an icon is not easy, especially when thecompany’s entire legal department consists of onlyone lawyer and his assistant. Luckily, the man incharge of the ZIPPO brand has developed a system asreliable as the product itself
Famous the world over for its neutrality and efficiency,Switzerland has a thing or two to teach theinternational community about resolving trademarkdisputes. Its legal market for trademark services is alsoone that rights holders would be cuckoo to ignore
A mature market and effective laws do not guaranteethat Japan will become the world's most advancedIP-based nation. However, new case law and recentchanges to trademark legislation will prove veryhelpful in helping the country to meet the challengeits political leaders have set
With the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to theEuropean Union set to occur on January 1 2007, the bigquestion is whether the two countries are ready to taketheir place in the CTM system. While there is still somework to do, the signs are that they are both wellprepared to meet the challenges ahead
McDonald’s attracted great swathes of negativecolumn inches when it decided to object to atrademark application filed by an Australian IP lawyer.The case highlights the dilemmas facing many bigcompanies as they fight to maintain the integrity oftheir brands
The South African courts have been busy developingthe interpretation of statutory law over the pastcouple of years. In particular, the spotlight has beenfocused on enforcement of trademarks by way ofdilution and the related balancing of the rights offreedom of expression and IP ownership on the onehand, and the practical difficulties arising from theregistration of container marks on the other
The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Propertyhandles an awful lot with a staff of only 220individuals. Besides the traditional functions ofexamination and registration of IP rights, the institutealso elaborates Swiss IP policy and promotes Swiss IPinterests at international level
Roundtable
The environment in which pharmaceutical trademark owners have tooperate is becoming increasingly complex. In this roundtable, fourexperts from private practice examine some of the major challenges
