The Melbourne Age newspaper has reported today that a trade mark dispute between Arnotts and Krispy Kreme has been settled with the latter agreeing to rename its Iced Dough-Vo. The article, sourced from AAP, makes amusing reading.

Patent and trade marks applications relating to green energy have grown in recent years according to a press release from Ministor for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Further to our post on the requirement for ISPs to have a termination policy for repeat copyright infringers, the Government anounced on 23 March that Section 92 of the Copyright Act 1994, that imposed that requirement, will not come into force as proposed, but would be reviewed.

The announcement is here.

The Trade Marks (International Treaties and Enforcement) Amendment Bill 2008 passed its first reading in Parliament on Tuesday 7 April and was referred to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee.

The Bill contains amendments to the Trade Marks Act 2002 to enable New Zealand to join several international trade marks treaties, including the Protocol Related to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (the Madrid Protocol), administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization.  Their collective aim is to reduce business compliance costs associated with protecting trade marks.  The Minister of Commerce, Hon Simon Power’s media statement on the Bill is here.

IP Australia opened a new patent examination centre in Melbourne today that will  be responsible for examining patent applications in the fields of chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry and electronics.

The Melbourne Patent Examination Centre represents a decentralisation of the patent examination function and will create 41 new jobs.