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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On 9 May 2016, POF hosted a wine tasting and networking event as part of the 2016 AusMedtech national conference in Adelaide. The wine tasting was conducted by local wine producer, and POF client, Two Hands Wines (THW). POF’s Lead Partner for medical technology, Dr Scott Whitmore, welcomed guests and spoke about POF’s expertise in …
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We are proud to sponsor BioMelbourne’s 8th Annual ‘Connecting Women’ Luncheon to be held on 20 May 2016. We have been a sponsor of this event since its inception in 2008 and we are delighted to continue this long-standing association. This significant annual event recognises the contributions and success of women in innovative science industries, …
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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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On 5 May 2016, POF hosted the Joan Radford Memorial Lecture featuring the Honourable Dr Annabelle Bennett SC AO, former Judge of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of the ACT. Organised by the Victorian Branch of the Women in Chemistry Group of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), this annual lecture …
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We are delighted to announce that Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick has been ranked as a Tier 1 firm for Trade Mark prosecutions in the Asia IP Magazine Trade Mark Survey 2016. The Asia IP Trademark Survey is an in-focus guide, containing editorial coverage of key trademark developments across Asia, and comprehensive rankings of the best firms …
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On Wednesday 20 April, POF Deputy Managing Partner, Karen Spark, presented an Innovation Seminar on ‘Intellectual Property – What you need to know to prevent costly business mistakes’ at the Business Technology Conference and Expo in Darwin. Sponsored by the Department of Business, the event was promoted in the NT Government Business Week news, profiling Karen …
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