Russian legislation on trademarks (together with legislation on intellectual property rights in general) have recently undergone major changes; Part Four of the Russian Civil Code came into force on 1 January 2008. Though most...

Licensing is regarded as a crucial business tool of international commerce. Once the importance of trademark licence agreements is recognised, most jurisdictions re-consider and develop respective legal rules in order to...

Imagine a company that has invested significant resources into developing a concept that is represented by a trademark, one that has been steadily gaining popularity and presence in the market as a direct consequence of the...

The main infringement defences Australian trademark law has quite a strict infringement test: the use as a trademark of a sign that is substantially identical with or deceptively similar to a registered trademark, in relation...

Solarcentury is one of Europe's most experienced solar energy companies, founded in 1998. They design, supply and install solar energy solutions and were awarded top Global Cleantech 100 firm in 2009. Principal Engineer Martyn...

Fakes and counterfeits in Latin America Catherine White takes a look at counterfeit goods crossing the US border. "Intellectual Property Right protection isn't just about fashion; it's also about protecting the American...

Which pizza chain uses the best ingredients in its pizza, Papa John's or Pizza Hut? Does Pennzoil or Castrol provide the best protection against engine wear? Who has the best 3G cellular phone coverage in the United States,...

The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Adjustment Act of 1984 - better known as the Hatch-Waxman Act - provides some protection from patent infringement claims for life science companies carrying out certain activities in...

There is a scene in Graham Greene's novel The Third Man where writer Rollo Martins confronts his friend Harry Lime at the top of the big wheel in the Prater amusement park in post-war Vienna. Martins has discovered that Lime...

The Federal Patent Court (FPC) has recently granted a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) for an implantable device which contains an active ingredient as an integral part within the device. The product is also subject...

Introduction US President Barack Obama, on 17 February 2009, signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the "Stimulus Bill" [1] . The Stimulus Bill altered the healthcare landscape by...

  "The performance in the panel reviews was generally very poor. Most were mediocre and some were absolutely abysmal," lamented the general counsel of a major international corporate summing-up the law firm panel...

  It's Friday afternoon and the telephone rings... " We have a great name for our new product. We're launching it first thing Monday morning and we need full clearance and protection for the name. It's FANTASTIC...

  Which pizza chain uses the best ingredients in its pizza, Papa John's or Pizza Hut? Does Pennzoil or Castrol provide the best protection against engine wear? Who has the best 3G cellular phone coverage in the United...

Social networking sites and the internet generally continue to push the boundaries of how trademarks are used and how brands can be promoted.  With every new frontier comes the added risk of infringement.  This...

  According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, patent applications in electrical and mechanical engineering far outnumber applications filed in the medical technology, organic fine chemistry and...

  How do you keep up with your competitors? How do your intellectual property policies measure up to others? What do MIRA [i] and Nielsen [ii] have in common? Whilst these questions may seem random and appear to have no...

  The rapidly growing number of patent publications is creating ever-increasing need for effective and efficient analytical tools. The World International Patent Organization (WIPO) claims that the world's patent literature...

  To suggest the process of licensing a product is complicated is a significant understatement. Licensing professionals know that inherently; though it might not be commonly understood more widely within the business....

The need for devices from different companies to be compatible with one another has led to an increased adoption of technical industry standards to enable such inter-operability.  This in turn has led to an increased...

  Intellectual property (and more particularly patents), having escaped from being a virtual backwater of the law in the early 1990s, is fast approaching a "tipping point" of acceptance as a natural and useful...

  Direct-to-retail brand licensing The increasing power of major retailers is widely understood, and one of the consequences of this has been the changing relationship between some bigger retailers and consumer brands....

  Brand licensing has evolved into a high visibility corporate business tool.  It keeps taking on new twists and turns, and achieving long-term success is an increasing but worthwhile challenge.  Here are ten key...

  Cynics may dismiss the clean technology revolution as another fad. There have been green fashions before, typically coinciding with when fossil fuel has been particularly expensive - for example in the 1970s when the US...

Although no serious commentator is predicting the demise of the console anytime soon, what is clear is that video game content is increasingly moving online and this platform shift has arguably resulted in threats to, and...

  Territory/exclusivity The franchisee is likely to seek a large territory along with exclusivity in order to limit competition between them and any other franchisees. From the franchisor's point of view, exclusivity over...

  In today's challenging business environment, distressed companies are, unfortunately, increasingly common. Distressed companies are not limited to a specific industry or stage, rather they are in a position of having run...

If you've been slogging away, slowly growing your retail business while watching a competitor's stores pop up like toadstools across your target territory, you've probably wondered what their secret is. The competition could...

  Many European businesses have a perfectly acceptable risk management policy and practice in place for their intellectual property (IP) exposures. Nevertheless, with an ever-changing global risk landscape it can be said...

Introduction The financial crisis continues to have a considerable effect on businesses: there is pressure to cut costs and to achieve maximum value from assets.  Many companies are restructuring, there is consolidation of...