POF news - Page 29 of 45 - Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick

Full Court shares ‘Insights’ and casts ‘Harbour Lights’ on trade mark ownership rights

March 20, 2018

Overseas trade mark owners seeking to challenge an Australian trade mark application similar to their own will often need to rely on a claim to being the true owner of the mark in Australia. A number of recent decisions applying a more liberal interpretation of the requirement of ‘substantially identical’ under section 58 of the …
>> Read more

Obviousness a fly in the ointment for Bayer

March 16, 2018
by David Longmuir, Principal

Syngenta Crop Protection AG v Bayer Intellectual Property GmbH [2018] APO 19 (9 March 2018) Syngenta has been successful in its opposition to two related Bayer patent applications. The patents relate to an insecticidal composition comprising a synergistically effective combination of one neonicotinoid compound selected from [a number of listed neonicotinoids] and an anthranilamide compound. …
>> Read more

POF Partner, Dr Edwin Patterson, wins Best Professional in the 2018 Financial Review Client Choice Awards

March 15, 2018

Congratulations to POF’s Dr Edwin Patterson, who cleaned up at last night’s 2018 Financial Review Client Choice Awards, winning not only the award for ‘Most Client-Focused IP Specialist’, but also the award for ‘Best Professional’ in Australia across all professional services. It was a great night for POF overall as we were also nominated as …
>> Read more

Springboard Injunctions

March 14, 2018
by Greg Chambers, Consultant

With the Commonwealth Games just around the corner it may be of some consternation to water sport fans that the Federal Court has recently contemplated the grant of a ‘Springboard Injunction’. In Mastec Australia Pty Ltd v Trident Plastics (SA) Pty Ltd (No3) [2018] FCA 99 his Honour Justice White revisited the question of granting …
>> Read more

Copyright in collaborative works – in search of a common purpose

March 13, 2018

Copyright works can often be the result of input from more than one person. The work will be considered one work (work of joint authorship) if the work has been produced by the collaboration of the authors and the contribution of each is not separate from the contribution of the others. Otherwise there will be two or …
>> Read more

Failure to disclose the ‘best method’ trips up another patent applicant

March 9, 2018
by Dr Matthew Overett, Principal

A recent decision of the patent office, Merial, Inc. v Bayer New Zealand Limited [2018] APO 14, has again highlighted the hazards of failing to “disclose the best method known to the applicant of performing the invention”, as required by section 40(2)(aa) of the Australian Patents Act. The facts of the case Opposed application AU2014201152 …
>> Read more

New Zealand patent, trade mark and design regulations amended

March 8, 2018
by Michelle Blythe, Former POF Attorney

Legislation was passed by the New Zealand Government on 5 March 2018 introducing amendments to the Patents Regulations 2014, the Trade Mark Regulations 2003, the Trade Marks (International Registration) Regulations 2012, and the Design Regulations 1954. These amendments will allow for an address for service to be provided in Australia or New Zealand for patent, …
>> Read more

Patent sufficiency not tested by “undue burden”

March 8, 2018
by Chris Schlicht, Principal

The Full Federal Court has recently considered what level of disclosure is needed in a patent specification in order that it “describes the invention fully” as required by Section (40)(2)(a) of the Patents Act 1990, prior to being amended by the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising The Bar) Act 2012. In Warner-Lambert Company LLC v …
>> Read more

Bohemia Crystal trade marks smashed in revocation action

March 7, 2018
by Adrian Crooks, Principal

In Bohemia Crystal Pty Ltd v Host Corporation Pty Ltd [2018] FCA 235, Host Corp successfully revoked BCP’s trade mark registrations for BOHEMIA and BOHEMIA CRYSTAL on the basis that neither mark was to any extent adapted to distinguish goods including glassware, nor had they become factually distinctive by reason of their use. On the …
>> Read more

Building brand value: lessons from the world’s leading brands

March 7, 2018
by Anita Brown, Principal

Amazon has been named the world’s most valuable brand in Brand Finance’s Global 500 2018 Report. It tipped out Apple and Google for the prize. Locally, Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ rounded out the Australian top three. On a regional basis, Mercedes-Benz ranks as Europe’s most valuable brand, Amazon as North America’s, the petroleum …
>> Read more