Australian Design Certification Round-Up 24 May 2012
A round-up of Australian Designs which have been certified (from the Designs Office Journal dated 24 May 2012).
Ethics: Lunch and Learn Seminar on 9 February 2012
This seminar will discuss recent cases which address situations including lawyers and patent attorneys acting for clients who are competitors, lawyers acting for their friends, and lawyers starting questionable court actions to achieve their client’s commercial objectives.
新年快乐!
Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year!
The Science of Pasta
The New York Times has a fascinating piece on the geometries of various types of pastas from a recently released book called “Pasta by Design,” by architect George L. Legendre.
Cloudy ownership of rainwater tanks
In Courier Pete Pty Ltd v Metroll Queensland Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 735 Metroll, a rainwater tank manufacturer, was unsuccessful in its claim that it was the person entitled to be registered as the owner of registered designs for new rainwater tanks. The designer and the designs Mr Collymore was the factory foreman of Metroll’s …
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Design owner sleeps easy thanks to statement of novelty
In a decision where a design registration for a mattress and base was found to be valid and infringed, the relevance of the statement of novelty included in the design registration was emphasised by the Court.
Patentee under pressure
The decision of Ryan J in Wake Forest University Health Sciences v Smith & Nephew granting an interlocutory injunction to restrain infringement has been overturned on appeal in Smith & Nephew Pty Ltd v Wake Forest University Health Sciences [2009] FCAFC 142. The main issue on appeal was whether the alleged infringer had sufficiently demonstrated that the only claim …
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Claim amendments allowable but refused
The importance of considering whether a patent should be amended prior to any Court proceedings being commenced has been reinforced by the decision of Bennett J in Apotex Pty Ltd v Les Laboratoires Servier (No 2)[2009] FCA 1019. Servier had initially applied to amend its then patent application under section 104. The amendments were allowed and …
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Designs defined by prior art
Technicon has been unsuccessful in its appeal against the decision of Cowdry J reported in which the trial judge found that Technicon had infringed Caroma’s registered design. The Full Court decision in Technicon Industries Pty Ltd v Caroma Industries Ltd [2009] FCAFC 76 largely affirms the reasoning at first instance and in doing so gives approval to what appears to …
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Parking Tickets not Fine
The practice of private company Adelaide City Fines in issuing parking tickets calculated to give the impression of being “fines” issued by an official body has been found to constitute misleading and deceptive conduct in breach of the Trade Practices Act in proceedings brought by the Corporation of the City of Adelaide.