 | INTERNET LAW - Royalties, Non-resident Withholding Tax |
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| | Inland Revenue Service, New Zealand
Friday, July 03, 2009
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| | When a New Zealand resident or a permanent establishment in New Zealand makes payments to a non-resident for the rights to use their intellectual property, the payments are considered to be sourced in New Zealand and subject to tax here. A resident person making such payments to a non-resident has to withhold non-resident withholding tax (NRWT) on the payments.
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| INTERNET LAW - Australia Copyright Update 2009 |
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| | Freehills.com, Australia, Kristin Stammer, Sue Gilchrist, Irene Zeitler, Campbell Thompson, www.freehills.com
Sunday, May 17, 2009
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| | The High Court recently decided1 that IceTV, the provider of an electronic program guide (EPG), did not infringe Nine's copyright in its TV program guide (IceTV Pty Ltd v Nine Network Australia Pty Limited [2009] HCA 14).
The High Court overturned the Full Federal Court"s decision and found IceTV, in taking program time and title information, had not taken a substantial part of Nine’s Weekly Schedules.
The High Court favoured the primary judge’s approach which found the skill and labour in making the programming decisions was irrelevant as it was not directed to the originality of form of expression of the program time and title information.
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| INTERNET LAW - Invalid Trademark Assignments in Gross: A Possible Defense for Infringement Claims under New Jersey's Case Law |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
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| | A 2004 New Jersey case held that an assignment in gross is invalid when there is no goodwill associated with the product or business. If there is no goodwill associated with a product or business, assigning a trademark- which is a symbol- may be deceitful to the public or an indication that the mark was abandoned. In these cases, the New Jersey district court held, the court will look to the "reality of the transaction" to determine whether goodwill was passed. Thus, one may think of invalid assignments in gross as a possible defense for trademark infringement claims.
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| INTERNET LAW - Public Hearing in Berkeley, California, to Focus on Intellectual Property |
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| | U.S. Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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| | The Federal Trade Commission today announced the fifth and final hearing in a series exploring the evolving market for intellectual property. This hearing will be held May 4-5, 2009, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, in cooperation with the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology [http://www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/] and the Berkeley Competition Policy Center [http://iber.berkeley.edu/cpc/]. It will explore how markets for patents and technology operate in different industries, whether those markets operate efficiently, and how patent policy might be adjusted to respond to problems in those markets in order to better promote innovation and competition.
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| INTERNET LAW - Sinking Copyright Piracy to Protect & Create Jobs |
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| | IBLS Contributor: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Alex Burgos, www.uschamber.com
Monday, April 13, 2009
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| | In Southern California this morning, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a field hearing regarding global copyright piracy. Today's gathering is especially timely as aficionados prepare for the summer movie season, and as Congress and the administration consider ways to combat this form of job-destroying theft.
Just last week, we saw the increasingly bold efforts of such digital thieves when "X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was illegally posted online - an entire month before its scheduled theater debut.
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| INTERNET LAW - Why Washington Must Face Global-Cyber-Name-Economy? |
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| | IBLS Contributor: Naseem Javed, nj@njabc.com
Monday, February 16, 2009
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| | The serious objections by US Department of Commerce to ICANN's new policies on creating unlimited domain suffixes are primarily based on old domain name thinking and continued fear of losing control of Internet. The comments lack serious knowledge of global business naming problems surrounded by international demands of multiple-cyber-branding platforms now impacting 99% of buyers and sellers worldwide. Businesses need to create global name brands for the new world with great speed and minimal costs and this time Washington could lead this charge or risk losing support to control the Internet.
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| INTERNET LAW - Counterfeiters Beware! Court of Appeal Rules on Criminal Provisions of the Trade Marks Act |
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| | By David Jackson, Senior Associate, Freehills Melbourne, & Campbell Thompson, Partner Freehills Melbourne
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
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| | A recent decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria will bring good news to owners and licensees of trade marks in Australia, particularly trade marks that are well known and often targeted by counterfeiters.1
The decision has clarified the tests to be applied in determining whether there has been a contravention of the criminal offence provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) (Act). The decision confirms that it is not necessary to prove that the accused knew that his or her conduct was unlawful or wrong. Instead, it must be proved only that the accused committed the relevant acts either intentionally or recklessly.
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| INTERNET LAW - Parody: a Safe Harbor under the Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Monday, October 06, 2008
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| | The Antic-Cyber squatting Protection Act (ACPA), 15 U.S.C.S § 1125(d), prohibits bad-faith, for profit, and abusive registration of Internet domain names in violation of the rights of trademark owners. This practice is known as cyber squatting. A successful cyber squatting claim must prove three elements: (1) that the affected trademark was distinctive at the time the domain name was registered; (2) that the domain name registered is identical or confusingly similar to the trademark; and (3) that the defendant used and registered the domain name with a bad faith and intent to profit. 15 U.S.C.S § 1125(d)(1)(A). In traditional trademark violation cases, parody is used as element to determine whether there is likelihood of confusion; it is not a standing-alone defense. In cyber squatting cases, however, parody has been used as a defense within the ACPA safe harbor provision.
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| INTERNET LAW - European Concept of Services for Trademark Registration Purposes |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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| | Registration of trademarks is under the EU Member States' jurisdiction but substantive conditions to acquire trademark rights is a matter of community law. Indeed, Council Directive 89/104/EEC of December, 21, 1988, was enacted to approximate substantive trademark laws among the EU Member States. This Directive was not implemented to create a common trademark law system to be applied by each community member; instead it aimed to approximate countries' trademark laws and make them functional in the EU. Yet, conflicts of laws on substantive trademark law concepts may arise even though most EU members are signatories to WIPO agreements (including the Paris Convention) and despite the Council's efforts to harmonize these various legislations. For instance, in 2005, there was a debate on the concept of services and its requirements for trademark registration purposes.
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| INTERNET LAW - Trademark Infringement: Likelihood of Confusion in the Internet |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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| | The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) refuses registration of a trademark or service mark that is likely to conflict with a mark or marks already registered or pending before the USPTO, according to Trademark Act Section 2(d), 15 U.S.C. Section 1052(d). When there is a conflict on whether a trademark is likely to create confusion with an already registered or pending mark, parties usually seek declaratory judgment before US courts. California courts apply the so-called Sleekcraft factors to determine whether a likelihood of confusion exists. This article provides information on the Sleekcraft factors and, from those, which are the most relevant for internet trademark infringement cases. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - Laos Trademark Law of 1995 |
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| | Kelly O'Connell, IBLS Editor
Monday, April 07, 2008
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| | Originally unified as the ancient Lao kingdom of Lan Xang, which was established in the 1300's under King Fa Ngum, this lush Asian state is known now as Lao People's Democratic Republic ("PDR”), or simply Laos. Despite being a regional player for hundreds of years, the kingdom entered decline until it was finally mastered by Siam (Thailand.) from the late 1800's till the late 19th century. France brought Laos into the French Indochina territories at the end of the 19th century. In 1975, after the end of the Vietnam war, Communist Pathet Lao wrested control of the government from the six-century-old monarchy and aligned the state with Vietnam and its highly structured regime. Change came as the country slowly eased out of communism and reestablished private enterprise and opened the door to foreign investment, starting in 1986. Laos was ushered into ASEAN in 1997.
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| INTERNET LAW - Distinctiveness of a Trademark under Taiwan Trademark Law |
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| | IBLS Editorial Department
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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| | Taiwan is an Asian Island of 35,801 Km2 (13,822.8 sq. mi.) and 23 million inhabitants. As part of the Republic of China, Taiwan is playing a major role in the international trade arena, especially in all related to the outsourcing and manufacturing sector. Thus, trademark holders worldwide are vigilant of Taiwan, and other Chinese territories, intellectual property ("IP”) laws, including trademark laws. Most trademark laws require that the mark be 'distinctive' to support IP protection. This article explains the ‘distinctiveness" requirement under Taiwan trademark law.
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| INTERNET LAW - Local Working of Patents in India |
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| | IBLS Contributor: Gladys MIRANDAH, patrick mirandah co., singapore@mirandah.com
Monday, March 31, 2008
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| | There is a requirement to file a statement of information (Form 27) regarding the working of a patent in India. The working of a patent means the commercial exploitation of the invention that is embodied in the patent. These statements can be supplied every financial calendar year, within three months of the end of each year.
Although the working of an invention within India at a commercial scale amounts to local working (LW), it still is controversial as to whether the LW of a patent can only be satisfied by the local production and not importation.
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| INTERNET LAW - Cyprus Trademark Law and Registration Process |
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| | IBLS Editorial Department
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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| | Some offshore centres are currently the hosting jurisdiction of e-commerce businesses. For this reason, in addition to competent telecommunication infrastructure, proper tax regimes, established banking services, among others; adequate intellectual property laws like trademarks are essential for e-commerce businesses. Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean and former British colony. Its official languages are Greek and Turkish and its currency is the Euro. Cyprus has a population of 788,457 inhabitants and a GDP (PPP) of 24,497 billion. Cyprus trademark law is cited as "Trade Mark Law of Cyprus.” This article introduces this key legislation to the reader and provides information on how to register a trademark according the Cyprus Trade Mark Law.
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| INTERNET LAW - Sweden Taking Pirate Bay to Court While Music Biz Demands EU Crack Down |
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| | Kelly O'Connell, IBLS Editor
Monday, February 04, 2008
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| | Like all major copyright scofflaws, the Pirate Bay had to know its date with Armageddon would likely happen at some time and now Sweden has taken umbrage at the file sharing site and is readying a prosecution against them. With ten-million peers and a million torrents of stolen files, the Bay has certainly grown beyond a cute adolescence. And with CD sales in free-fall as a result of theft and rampant sharing, the music industry is demanding the EU develop a better plan to help slay the voracious copyright-leech that will kill its host, if left unchecked.
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| INTERNET LAW - Are Critical Blog Comments Actionable Under the Lanham Act for Trademark Dilution? |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Monday, December 17, 2007
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| | Blogging is one of the most popular Internet activities nowadays where significant information is shared with a vast audience. But, is it a forum for intellectual property infringement as well? Still, there is not legal basis for a sound yes answer to this question. United States Courts are considering cause of actions filed under the Lanham Act for trademark dilution based on blog articles or blog commentaries. Yet, we have not witnessed any favorable granting in any of those cases.
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| INTERNET LAW - Dean of Peking Intellectual Property Rights Center Claims China Has Only 10% of Needed IP Experts – Can the West Help? |
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| | Kelly O'Connell, IBLS Editor
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
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| | Professor Zheng Shengli, Dean of the Intellectual Property Rights School at Peking University, recently made a surprising admission about the state of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in China. At the recent Forum on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Higher Education, Professor Shengli admitted the numbers of needed IP experts will fall short by the tens-of-thousands for the foreseeable future.
Several obvious reasons exist for this lack of IP professionals. In brief, the staggering growth the Chinese economy has sustained in the last few years, especially in sectors that deal directly with Intellectual Property, such as technology, software and various aspects of electronic media, like creation of CD's and DVD's has spurred the need for knowledgeable advice on typical issues.
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| INTERNET LAW - Use of Intellectual Property by Health Research Institutes in Developing Countries |
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| | World Intellectual Property Organization- WIPO
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
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| | A three year project funded by the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN) and coordinated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has developed a model to enhance the capacity of health research institutes in developing countries to leverage the value of their research results through strategic management of their intellectual property (IP) assets. It has already led to the filing of patents for cancer-related treatments in participating countries.
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| INTERNET LAW - China's Keyword Dispute Resolution Centre |
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| | IBLS Editorial Department
Monday, September 17, 2007
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| | Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre's (HKIAC) established the Internet Keyword Dispute resolution Centre. As its name infers, this arbitration centre solves Internet keyword disputes in China. Disputes are governed by China Internet Network Information Center- CNNIC- Internet Keyword Disputes Resolution Policy which sets the legal framework for these disputes. China's Internet keyword dispute process is totally written; parties must submit written arguments and documents to HKIAC via fax, e-mail, or post; in exceptional cases, hearings may be conducted. Following, you may find the legal text of the CNNIC Internet Keyword Dispute Resolution Policy.
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| INTERNET LAW - Courts Split on Trademark-Triggered Internet Ads |
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| | IBLS Contributor: Jere M. Webb, Stoel Rives LLP, US, jmwebb@stoel.com
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
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| | U.S. cases are widely split on whether trademark-triggered banner ads or sponsored links constitute “use” under the federal trademark statute, whether this sort of usage creates likelihood of customer confusion, and whether the fair-use doctrine is applicable. Courts have struggled to apply traditional trademark principles to purchase of trademark-triggered ads, as well as use of trademarks in metatags or hidden text. [More...] |
