Everyone is familiar with Sir Richard Branson and his empire, Virgin Enterprises Limited (“Virgin Enterprises”) whose interests include airlines, soft drinks, mobile phone services and even commercial space travel. read more »
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The latest must-have app for the iPad is a “social media aggregator” called Flipboard. This app presents the content from a variety of links in a consolidated format, and has become immediately popular with iPad users. However, inevitably questions have been raised about the legality of its functionality. read more »
A recent decision of the US District Court found that credit card processing companies may be liable for contributory trade mark infringement when they process credit card payments for websites that sell counterfeit merchandise. read more »
In Best Buy Co. Inc v Worldwide Sales Corporation España S.L. [2010] EWHC 1666 (Ch), the High Court of Justice (UK) had to consider whether a statement made in the course of negotiations constituted a “threat of legal proceedings” under section 21 of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (UK) (“the Act”). read more »
In a recent decision (Monsanto Technology LLC v Cefetra BV and Others), the Court of Justice of the European Union declared that patent protection for gene patents will only extend to gene sequences which are performing the specific function for which they were patented. The decision of the Court is the first-ever judicial assessment of the extent to which European patent law will protect gene patents. read more »
The Fitzroy Football Club and the Brisbane Lions have negotiated a settlement in relation to their dispute over the new logo unveiled by the Brisbane Lions in October 2009. read more »
Everybody loves the "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" commercials for Old Spice, but what if someone wanted to copy them... read more »
Readers will be familiar with the lawsuit brought by the Estate of Adrian Jacobs (the long deceased author of Willy the Wizard) against J K Rowling and her UK publishers, Bloomsbury. It is alleged that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is derivative of Willy the Wizard, infringing copyright in that work. read more »
(Now that we have your attention!…) Earlier this year, we blogged on the Advertising Standards Bureau ("ASB"), the organisation responsible for administering a national system of advertising self-regulation, mainly through its Advertising Standards Board ("Board"). We've now had a look at how the Board dealt with the 47 complaints it considered in March this year, and there are some interesting lessons. read more »
Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, and Nate Mendel (the Applicants) clearly take copyright in their songs more seriously than they take themselves (for non-fans, they are renowned for playing hilarious characters in Foo Fighters’ film clips). Now, the Federal Court is experiencing its own touch of celebrity, with Fast Track proceedings launched by the Applicants against real estate company RE/MAX Australia Franchising Pty Ltd, and RE/MAX International Inc (the Respondents). read more »