In May 2016, The High Court of Australia dismissed an application for special leave to appeal the RPL Central decision1 of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. The Full Federal Court found that RPL Central’s invention was not patentable as it was simply a scheme or idea implemented on a generic computer, …
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Can an overseas company be sued for infringement of an Australian trade mark even though it engages in no commercial activity in Australia? A recent trade mark case says yes – Playgro Pty Ltd v Playgo Art & Craft Manufactory Limited [2016] FCA 280 (22 March 2016). The Playgo companies were incorporated in Hong Kong …
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The increase in businesses using the internet to promote their products and services has prompted a corresponding growth in the ways in which trademarks may be used and abused online. Apart from obvious uses as domain names and on websites, trademarks may also be used as metatags (invisible tags which describe a web page’s content), …
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There have been recent reports of the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that the Google Books project, which involves digitising books, does not infringe copyright in the United States. Digitising books permits users to search books online as well as download individual pages of books displaying the search result. The decision was based on …
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The Patent Office remains committed to ensuring that patent opposition proceedings are handled in a manner that resolves opposition disputes quickly and inexpensively, whilst still ensuring the public interests are being met. To this end, the Patent Office is carefully considering requests for extensions of time to file opposition evidence so as to avoid unnecessary delays. Extension requests will be refused where the proper grounds …
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Hardline position on patentable subject matter is maintained The High Court of Australia has dismissed an application for special leave to appeal from the RPL Central decision[1] of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. The Full Federal Court found that RPL Central’s invention was a simply scheme or idea implemented on a …
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Australia and England’s sporting rivalries are legendary. Several Australian sporting identities are renowned for taking any opportunity to make an (affectionate?) remark that might unsettle one’s Imperial opponent. The word ‘POM’ or ‘POMMIE’ is a colloquial Australian word to refer to an English person, while ‘POMMIEBASHER’ refers to someone who is not of English background, …
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The Australian Government has launched a digital intellectual property marketplace designed to provide Australian businesses with easy access to public sector research. SourceIP has been developed by IP Australia, and provides a means for public sector patent owners to signal their willingness to license, sometimes at no cost, innovations in their key areas of technology. …
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Who could forget the classic Australian ‘Goggomobil’, the HELLO YELLOW jingle or the ‘Let your fingers do the walking’ tagline? These advertising gems and cues, launched by leading telecommunications company, Telstra, bring to mind their ‘Yellow Pages’ directory. But when used in relation to print or online directories, does the word YELLOW alone give rise to such an association? Or in trade mark …
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