14th January, 2010

NSE to trademark currency derivatives label

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India has applied for registration of a trademark for its 'Currency Derivatives' label under different classes, at the Trade Marks Registry, Chennai.

The NSE's application made on September 1, 2009 for currency derivatives label includes signs of three currencies -- US dollar, euro and Japanese yen. Trademarks are a type of industrial property, protected by intellectual property rights (IPR).

A currency derivative is a contract between the seller and the buyer, the value of which is derived from the underlying asset, the currency amount. These are risk management tools in forex and money markets used for evasion of risks and act as insurance against unpredictable currency and interest rate movements. Trading in currency futures was first initiated in India by the NSE in August 2008.

Cancer drug patent for Novartis

Novartis, a Swiss drug manufacturer has been granted patent in India for Nilotinib, an advanced version of blood cancer drug Gleevec (imatinib mesylate). The company was engaged in a legal battle with the government on the latter’s decision to deny patent protection for Gleevec.

Nilotinib is marketed globally by Novartis as Tasigna, which is used as the second-line therapy for patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia, who are Gleevec-resistant. The Chennai Patent Office had granted the patent and it was issued against a mail-box application seeking patent protection filed in 2004. No Indian pharma company has challenged the patent till now.

A patent application by Novartis for another form of Gleevec and a hypertension drug, which combined Valsartan and Amilodipine was rejected last year by the Indian Patent Office. Novartis challenged it and the case is pending before the Supreme Court.

ITC favors Mitsubishi in wind turbine dispute

General Electric Company (GE), based in Connecticut, US had filed a lawsuit in 2008 against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America Inc. (MHIA) for alleged infringement of three GE wind turbine patents. In August 2009, the ITC administrative law judge ruled that Mitsubishi violated two of the patents. But the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) found no violation of GE wind turbine patents by Mitsubishi and terminated its investigation on 8th January 2010.

The ITC can block the importation of products made with infringing technology, which would be effective only after a standard 60-day executive branch review, which seldom overturns the ITC's decisions.

The larger wind turbines are quite popular in the West, as they are cost effective and require less space. Mitsubishi manufactures components for the wind turbines in Japan and Mexico before importing them to the United States where the machines are built. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will continue to import its 2.4 MW variable-speed wind turbines into the US.

Thinner touch screen patent filed by Apple

Apple Inc. has filed a patent for thinner and brighter touch screens for its laptop and mobile devices. Touch-sensing components are present at the topmost layers that form a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen.  Apple's patent intends to make the LCD pixels 'touch sensitive' by removing the additional layers, thus making the screen thinner, lighter and brighter.

The application was filed in late 2008 and is credited to Steve Hotelling (of Apple's iPhone's multi-touch screen fame) and to Shih Chang, Lili Huang and John Zhong.

A layer of transparent material which carries capacitors on the top of LCD screens, stores a minute electrical charge that changes when it is touched; each touch generates a separate, distinct signal which is passed to the phone's processor.

This new patent filing would do away with the separate layer by re-engineering the LCD screen, to create dual-function capacitive elements, which can form both parts of the display system to show an image, and part of the touch-sensing system to detect and interpret fingertip touch. This would result in a thinner and brighter display with integrated touch sensing capability.

Watson sued over Sleep Drug Patent by Cephalon

Cephalon Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. over the generic version of the sleep-disorder drug Nuvigil in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Generic drug developer Watson Pharmaceuticals had plans to make a generic version of Cephalon's sleep disorder drug Nuvigil.

Cephalon is suing generic drug developer Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. in a similar patent dispute over the sleep disorder drug, which is an updated version of the sleep-disorder drug Provigil.

Watson Pharmaceuticals had requested Food and Drug Administration for approval on various doses of a generic version of Nuvigil.  This lawsuit of Cephalon against Watson will prevent the FDA from approving generic Nuvigil for the next 30 months as a mandatory waiting period, or until a court makes a ruling on the lawsuit.

American Band - Metallica wins trademark lawsuit

The American metal band with the name Metallica has won a lawsuit against Czech entrepreneurs who had registered the name ‘Metallica’ in 1995 with the Czech trademark register and were selling products such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, shoes, bags, etc. branded "Metallica".

The rock band had already grown to be a global icon and had become quite famous by then, and had also performed in the Czech Republic. Metallica, represented by their drummer Lars Ulrich, alleged that this group of Czech entrepreneurs registered the name to make profit from Metallica’s popularity and viewed it as trademark infringement. Ulrich argued that the name Metallica is known all over Europe, including the Czech Republic. The Czech Industrial Property Office supported him by stating in the verdict that the consumers might have been under the impression that the merchandize were produced by the band itself.

Metallica has nine Grammy Awards to its credit. In 2009, Metallica gained more than 53 million USD from its US concert tour, and is listed among the top ten music bands in terms of business profit. It is the first world rock band which publicly protested against trademark infringement in the Czech Republic.

Nokia and Motorola sued over CDMA patent infringement

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), a Government-owned South Korean telecom research firm, is suing Nokia and Motorola, for alleged infringement of its CDMA patent. The research firm had lodged complaint against 22 foreign retailers in 2009, including Nokia and Motorola.
 
The ETRI officials allege that the international vendors infringe seven 3G technology patents, including WCDMA. ETRI was the first institute to commercialize CDMA technology in 1996, and has around 170 mobile technology patents to its credit.
 
In June 2009, ETRI received royalties from HTC, a Taiwanese vendor which had violated three patents on handsets supplied to Verizon, in an out of court settlement. The research institute anticipates raising more than $270 million in royalties from the suits against the international vendors.