Suppose you have an inventor or applicant who asks you to file a patent application in the U.S. However, the applicant has limited financial resources for filing the patent application. Should you claim small entity status or micro entity status for the applicant at the time of filing the patent application? The answer depends on whether the applicant qualifies for small entity status and, in particular, micro-entity status every time a fee is paid.
Canadian brand owners should prepare now for fee increases coming into force in 2024. Overall, fees are set to increase by 20 to 35%. In particular, the government fee for filing a Canadian trademark application is increasing to $460 for the first class and $140 for each additional class (the current fees are $350 and $105, respectively). The renewal fee is increasing to $555 for the first class and $175 for each additional class (up from $420 and $130, respectively). The fees to record assignments and other transfers of title are increasing to $125 per application/registration (up from the current rate of $100).
This case(1) concerned a collective management organisation’s (CMO’s) application for the temporary determination of related and neighbouring rights and copyrights. This was for equitable remuneration for public reproduction of intellectual works by catering businesses (ie, coffee shops). The judgment also dealt with the presumption of management and protection representative authority for CMOs.
The end of the calendar year is also, for legal purposes, the end of the corporate and accounting year, under Colombian Law.
The beginning of a new corporate year, on January 1, triggers, for corporate entities and branches of foreign companies, the need to carry out several duties, both in the form of legal obligations or in the form of managing maintenance duties, to guarantee that all matters are in line with the applicable regulations, and reflect the good status of the legal status of the entity.
Fiction writing has a curious claim on truth.
We learn this at the youngest age, listening to fairy tales when the child in us “intuitively comprehends that, although these stories are unreal, they are not untrue …” Bettelheim, The Uses Of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (at 73).
We hear this in Melville’s revealing, in the opening of chapter 12 of Moby Dick, the location of the island of “Rokovoko,” a place that “is not down in any map; true places never are.”
Australia’s trade mark legislation provides trade mark owners with the ability to register (in certain circumstances) their well-known brands as ‘defensive trade marks’ in respect of particular goods and/or services, even if the owner of the mark has no intention of using the mark in respect of those goods and/or services.
For this edition, we decided to make a compilation of answers to questions that we frequently receive from clients who intend to protect their trademarks in Colombia.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has recently published a set of draft amendments (“Draft Rules”) to the Indian Patent Rules, 2003. The amendments are currently open for comments from the public. The draft amendment rules can be accessed at – https://ipindia.gov.in/writereaddata/Portal/Images/pdf/248296.pdf.
Broadcasting of background music – Equitable remuneration – Mere provision of physical facilities – Sound equipment on board trains and aircraft – Presumption of communication to the public as a result of possession of technical means – Implications on Greek case law and practice in relation to use of in-store/background music in business premises.
In this case before the Multi-member Court of First Instance of Thessaloniki, the plaintiff requested judicial protection of his recipes (i.e., dishes and seasonings) as works of IP. (1) He made this request on grounds including trademark law and unfair competition law. However, the Court rejected the action as:
