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