In Richwood Creek Pty Ltd v Williams [2010] FCA 196 the Federal Court has reversed a decision of the Patent Office to uphold a patent opposition. The opposition was decided on the ground that the patent applicant alone was not entitled to the grant of a patent. Spender J disagreed that one of the inventors’ [...]
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In November 2009 the Australia Government introduced legislation implementing the Agreement between Australia and New Zealand on Trans-Tasman Court Proceedings and Regulatory Enforcement. The Trans-Tasman Proceedings Bill 2010 was passed by both Houses of the Australian Parliament and is now awaiting Royal Assent. The New Zealand Government introduced parallel legislation on 24 November 2009. The [...]
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Kit Kat’s chocolate wafer biscuit is set to become a registered trade mark, after Nestle and Aldi agreed to resolve an appeal from a decision of the Trade Marks Office not register the confectionery’s finger shape as a trade mark. See our report on that here. Aldi had initially given Nestle ‘the big finger’, successfully [...]
Click here to see the full post The Australian Customs Service has seized 60 pairs of counterfeit Oakley® sunglasses and accessories. Seizures of the sunnies were made on 30 December 2009 and 6 January 2010, pursuant to the Trade Marks Act 1995 which makes provision for the seizure of goods which bear registered trade marks applied without the trade mark owner’s authorisation. [...]
Click here to see the full post Australian Customs and Border Protection seized 1.1 million counterfeit items in 2009, more than double the 547,000 items seized in 2008. The Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, released these figures on Friday 19 March and expressed concerns about the serious risks to the health and safety that counterfeit items can pose. Mr O’Connor recommended [...]
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The decision of Bennett J in Inverness Medical Switzerland GmbH v MDS Diagnostics Pty Limited [2010] FCA 108 highlights the importance of expert witnesses being truly representative of the hypothetical person skilled in the art. Inverness relied on the evidence of Boscato, “a person who works at a bench in a laboratory rather than being [...]
Click here to see the full post An Aussie company has triumphed in a legal wrangle with computer giant Apple Inc over registration of its trade mark DOPI. Despite Wholesale Central Pty Ltd’s trade mark, being the reverse of the famous Apple iPod® trade mark and placing emphasis on the letter “i”, the DOPI trade mark was not found to be deceptively [...]
Click here to see the full post This case involves parties selling similar “enhanced drinking water” products in Australia. Images are available in the judgement. NutrientWater had not registered its Trade Dress as a trade mark. Thus, it was not able to take action under the Trade Marks Act. In Nutrientwater Pty Ltd v Baco Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 2, NutrientWater alleged [...]
Click here to see the full post Trade marks in Australia are registered in respect of one or more classes of goods or services. The classes are established by an international convention to which Australia is signatory; goods are divided into 34 classes and services into 11 classes. When looking to see whether a trade mark application conflicts with an earlier application [...]
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The High Court today refused the application by Sanofi-Aventis for special leave to appeal the decision of the Full Federal Court in Apotex Pty Ltd v Sanofi-Aventis [2009] FCAFC 134, meaning the decision of that court stands.
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