WIPO - Brazil joins Madrid System for international trademarks

The number of countries and regions joining the international system for trademark registration on the basis of the Madrid Agreement and its Protocol, continues to grow. Brazil will be the latest country to join the international system for trademark registration (also known as the Madrid System) from 2nd October 2019.

The Madrid System makes possible to request the trademark protection in one or more member States of the Madrid System via a single application to WIPO - Geneva, Switzerland.

On October 2019, Brazil will be the 105th member state of the Madrid System. After Brazil’s accession, the Madrid System will cover n. 121 Countries, including the EU member States and n. 3 Countries of the Benelux.

Adhésion du Canada au Protocole de Madrid

Le 17 mars 2019, le gouvernement du Canada a déposé auprès de l’OMPI son instrument d’adhésion au Protocole de Madrid. Ce dernier entrera en vigueur, à l’égard du Canada, le 17 juin 2019. Le Canada a fait les déclarations suivantes :

• le délai de refus est étendu à 18 mois et un refus provisoire fondé sur une opposition après l’expiration de ce délai est possible;

• le Canada souhaite recevoir une taxe individuelle, lorsqu’il est désigné dans une demande internationale ou fait l’objet d’une désignation postérieure; le montant de cette taxe est de CHF 251 pour un classe de produits ou services et de CHF 76 pour chaque classe supplémentaire;

• l’inscription de licences au registre international est sans effet au Canada.

Malawi joining Madrid System

Malawi is joining the international system for trademark registration on the basis of the Madrid Agreement and its Protocol. Malawi is the latest country to deposit at WIPO an instrument of accession, which comes into force on 25 December 2018.

WIPO - patent-search tool for easy access to medicine patents

WIPO and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) have launched a new online tool designed to provide easy access to medicine patent information.
The Patent Information Initiative for Medicines (Pat-INFORMED) provides information about patents covering approved medicines through a free, open access database. Anyone can search the Pat-INFORMED database simply by entering a medicine’s INN (International Nonproprietary Name) to obtain relevant information about the status of a patent in a particular country.
http://www.wipo.int/pat-informed/en/

OREO vs. TWINS - cookies story

In case C‑487/07 the European Court of Justice clarified the European trademarks "with reputation" enjoy a broader level of protection under EU trademark law. Trademark owners that are able to show that their European Trademarks are known to a large portion of the public can not only act against younger identical and confusingly similar trademarks that are used for similar goods or services, but also against younger similar trademarks for goods/services that are not similar. This higher level of protection is only applicable if the use of the allegedly infringing trademark is without due cause and would take unfair advantage of, or be detrimental to, the distinctive character or reputation of the earlier EUTM. Therefore, OREO had gained reputation over the years, consumers will likely consider TWINS to be a possible replacement of the OREO cookies on the grounds of similar quality characteristics. In other words, TWINS is taking unfair advantage of the reputation and investment of OREO as a trademark:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?docid=75459&doclang=en

Brand Finance 2015 - Lego is ranked the world’s most powerful brand

Brand Finance’s analysis this year has found that Lego is now the world’s most powerful brand, scoring highly on its Brand Strength Index for familiarity, loyalty, promotion, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation. Other brands to do well on the Brand Finance Brand Strength Index include PWC, Red Bull, McKinsey, Unilever, L’Oréal, Burberry and Rolex. Twitter is the fastest growing brand, according to this year’s research.

UE - Publication of the lists of CTM Courts and Community Design Courts

Publication of the lists of Community trade mark courts and Community design courts in accordance with Article 95(4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 on the Community trade mark and Article 80(4) of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 on Community design at the following link:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.C_.2014.332.01.0004.01.ENG