14th September, 2009

McCURRY WINS TRADEMARK DISPUTE AGAINST MCDONALD’S

McDonald's Corp., the American fast-food giant has lost an eight-year dispute over the trademark ‘McCurry’. McCurry is a family-run restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Malaysian High Court has ruled that the curry restaurant could use 'Mc' in its name. McCurry, established in 1999, serves traditional Indian and Malaysian dishes, such as fish-head curry.

McDonald's first sued McCurry for trademark infringement in 2001, because of the "Mc" prefix in the McCurry name and a high court had ruled the case in McDonald’s favor in 2006. McCurry appealed again and the Court of Appeal and won in April this year. McDonald's then appealed to Malaysia's Federal Court, the country's highest, which on 8th September 10, 2009 ruled that McDonald's can't appeal against the lower court verdict. This court ruling has effect only in Malaysia.

McDonald with about 32,000 restaurants world-wide, including 185 in Malaysia, and annual sales of $70.6 billion will continue to defend its trademarks and brand around the world, according to its spokesperson.

Israeli company scores internet patent worth million-dollars

Aviv Refuah, who started the company Netex Corporation at 16 years of age and is now the CEO and has scored a US patent on a new internet search option developed by his company, which could force key Internet search players like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to pay up royalties for future use of the technology.

Netex applied for the patent referred to as ‘www.addressing’, which allows internet users to access the site of interest by just typing the site's name directly into the address bar or search box and get connected to a website directly, without getting search results first to choose from. The patent for this development was first applied in 1998 and it will expire in 2018.

Netex Corporation and its legal counsels will now survey licensing possibilities with all of the major Internet search players. With this news in circulation, the Israeli hi-tech firm's stocks have increased by 144% and its net worth has risen by over $30 million.

TIVO WINS PATENT SUIT AGAINST DISH NETWORK

DISH Network will have to pay TiVo almost $200 million in damages as part of the company's long-running patent infringement suit against the DTH platform.

A Texas court has awarded the damages payment as DISH Network continued to violate a permanent injunction ordered by a court on the patented DVR technology, owned by TiVo. The approximate $200 million in damages, together with attorney fees and costs incurred during the contempt proceedings, amounts to $400 million, which DISH must pay to TiVo.

Earlier TiVo had asked for a $1 billion in damages. The sanction is equivalent to about $2.25 per DVR subscriber per month. TiVo has of late filed similar suits against AT&T and Verizon, alleging that these companies infringed on its patented DVR technology.

COCHLEAR BUYS OTOLOGICS TECHNOLOGY PATENTS

The world's largest producer of inner ear implants Cochlear Ltd, has given consent to buy patent rights from Otologics LLC for use in its devices for 25 million US$.

Cochlear Ltd. based in Sydney also will engage in joint development activities with the Boulder, Colorado, medical device company. The acquisition and development agreement according to Cochlear Chief Executive Chris Roberts were steps in achieving the company's long-term goal of a totally implantable cochlear implant.

US$8.5 million have already been paid by June 30, 2009, plus a royalty on future sales of certain products involving an implantable microphone and the purchase price is payable over the period to Dec. 31, 2011. The full US$25 million will be treated as acquired intangibles and amortized over about 15 years, the company said.

OPEN INVENTION NETWORK BUYS UP 22 PATENTS

The Open Invention Network (OIN), an IP company which was formed to defend Linux from patent lawsuits, has purchased 22 patents formerly owned by Microsoft and which appear to impact Linux.

The group purchased the patents from Allied Security Trust - a consortium of companies, including Verizon, HP and Cisco, created to buy up patents in a self-defensive move. AST bought these patents from Microsoft in a private auction. Keith Bergelt CEO of the Open Invention Network says Microsoft presented these as Linux-related patents, but Microsoft refused to verify this.

This is a deliberate move to protect Linux against the possibility of its patents to be sold off to patent trolls who would use them against open source companies.

CHRISTIE, PARKER & HALE HELP GOSSAMER SPACE FRAMES OBTAIN TWO IMPORTANT PATENTS RELATED TO SOLAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY 

Christie, Parker & Hale LLP (CPH), one of Southern California’s leading intellectual property laws has helped its client Gossamer Space Frames of Huntington Beach, California in obtaining two key patents.

The patents involved are U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,530,201 and 7,578,721, which relate to node connectors useful in structural space frames of the double layer grid type. Hayden Carney, the CPH attorney who successfully prosecuted the patents mentions, "These patents provide protection for the forms of Gossamer’s Organic Connector™ technology which are features of the mirror support frames Gossamer designed for the Nevada Solar One and other utility-scale solar electric power plants,".

Gossamer’s Organic Connector™ technology plays a crucial role in delivering proven design, cost and performance advantages. It enables mirrors of a solar trough structure to be much more perfectly positioned, infinitely increasing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of solar thermal installations.

PATENT FOR CEREPLAST’S BREAKTHROUGH HYBRID RESINS®

Cereplast, Inc., manufacturer of proprietary bio-based, sustainable plastics, has been granted a patent for its breakthrough Cereplast Hybrid Resins by the USPTO. The patent numbered 10,506,418 adds to the company`s growing intellectual property portfolio.

At present, Cereplast has a total of 48 patents and patent applications in the United States and abroad covering two families of resins: Cereplast Compostables and Cereplast Hybrid Resins.

The new patent was originally developed by two researchers at the University of Arkansas and further developed by the R&D team at Cereplast. This patent protects the composition formulation of Cereplast`s Hybrid Resins line designed mainly for durable plastic application.