21st April , 2010

Intel moves Bombay High Court over trademark

Intel Corporation, the world’s leading microchip maker has moved the Bombay High Court challenging a decision by the trademarks registry to renew the company’s trademark — Intel.

Intel’s request for registering its trademark in the country was rejected by the trademarks registry of India and an Intel Exports Corporation, a Mumbai-based firm was given the trademark.

In its petition, the global giant has stated that the trademark had been removed from the register of trademarks and was declared lapsed on August 16, 2003. The trademark was renewed in September 2007 though the registrar general of trademarks has no authority to renew a trademark lapsed before a year. The renewal certificate submitted by Intel Exports Corporation also did not show renewal of the trademark for the period of seven years, ending October 2007.

However, the finance controller of Intel Exports Corporation says that the firm had owned the trademark since 1976. The petition is to come up for hearing on April 27.

Microsoft and Amazon ink patent deal covering Kindle and Linux

Microsoft and Amazon.com, the online retailer have made an agreement giving each company a license to the other's patent portfolio. As part of the deal, Microsoft would be granting its open-source and proprietary technologies in its Kindle e-reader, and its use of Linux-based computer servers to Amazon.

Amazon.com will pay an undisclosed amount of money under the agreement to Microsoft. In 2007 Microsoft had claimed that Linux and other open-source technologies violated more than 200 of its patents and the company had sued TomTom, the navigation company last year over implementation of the Linux core in its devices. TomTom settled with Microsoft in an agreement by removing Linux-related file-management technologies from its products.

Usually under cross-licensing agreements, companies consent not to sue one another over alleged patent violations in their relevant products.

Japanese Patent to Suven Life Sciences for its NCE

Suven Life Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad, India, has received a product patent for its new chemical entity (NCE) from the Japanese Patent Office (JPO). This new chemical entity is used for the treatment of disorders associated with neurodegenerative diseases like alzheimer’s disease, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hungtinton's disease, parkinson and schizophrenia.

The granted claims of the patent include the class of selective serotonin receptor affinity compounds discovered by Suven, which are being developed as therapeutic agents. Suven Life Sciences has patent protection for several of its NCE's in all major markets like US, Canada, China, Russia, India, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Mexico and several product patent applications from Suven Discovery Research are in the pipeline.

This is Suven Life Sciences's first product patent granted in Japan and is valid till 2023. Suven offers DDDSS (Drug Discovery and Development Support Services) and CRAMS (Contract Research and Manufacturing Services) to more than 25 Life Sciences companies around the world.

Japanese patent covering use of papilloma pseudovirus granted to Bio-Bridge Science

The Japanese Patent Office has granted a patent regarding the use of the papilloma pseudovirus to Bio-Bridge Science, Inc.

Bio-Bridge Science, Inc. is a biotechnology company engaged in the commercial development of vaccines and vaccine-related products. This biotechnology company has earlier been granted patents relating to the papilloma pseudovirus technology and preparation in the United States and China. The Loyola University Chicago owns the patent and has exclusively licensed the technology to Bio-Bridge Science, Inc.

Glenmark and GSK settle patent dispute on anti-malaria drug

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals’s US-based group company has settled a patent dispute with GlaxoSmithKline over the launch of a generic version of anti-malaria drug Malarone.

Glenmark Generics Inc. has settled the imminent litigation between the company and GSK over patent actions concerning atovaquone and proguanil hydrochloride 250mg/100mg tablets, the generic version of GSK's Malarone tablets.

According to the settlement, Glenmark will be able to market and distribute its atovaquone/proguanil 250mg/100mg tablets under a royalty-bearing licence from GSK in the third quarter of 2011, or earlier under certain circumstances.

New IP law in South Africa from June / July

By June or July this year, a new Act regulating intellectual property (IP) from public funded research and development is expected to come into effect in South Africa.

The main intention of the Act is to ensure that IP developed from publicly financed research is protected and commercialised for the benefit of the people of South Africa, according to McLean Sibanda from the Department of Science and Technology’s National Research Foundation. The general public will be given a few months time to become familiar with the law before it comes into effect - in June or July at the latest.

Professor Puri Kamal from the Australian Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries said that there is a need to protect IP developed in South Africa from being sold to overseas companies, and then buying back the goods invented in finished form, at a premium.

Digital ticketing system patent for Apple?

Apple Inc. has filed for a patent for an electronic event ticketing system called "Concert Ticket +".

The system illustrated in the patent would considerably increase the usefulness of both the iPhone including all other devices capable of transmitting radio-frequency signals and Apple's iTunes service, through which users would access the Concert Ticket + system. When this system described as a concert ticket application, is put into service it would allow event-goers to download tickets to their iPhones and use them to gain entry to any concert without a physical ticket.

The technology could be linked to services as discount coupons, event-related extras such as video and audio clips, merchandise sales, amusement park admissions and rides, and even weddings, to issue invitations, or use the system to purchase videos of the event. This would ensure that there is no need to worry about losing a ticket.

Google and Yahoo countersue Xerox in patent dispute

Google and Yahoo have filed a countersuit against Xerox in an ongoing legal fight pertaining to alleged infringement of registered search patents. The suit claims that neither company had infringed two of Xerox's internet search patents, and hence cannot be sued by Xerox,

Google and its YouTube subsidiary were sued by Xerox over a US Xerox patent referred to as a System for Automatically Generating Queries. The lawsuit states that search requests in AdSense and AdWords violate Xerox's automatically generating queries technology.

Yahoo is being sued for infringement of Xerox's Method and Apparatus for the Integration of Information and Knowledge patent in Y!Q Contextual Search, Yahoo Search Marketing and Yahoo Publisher Network. Xerox claims that this patent is also being violated by Google Maps, Google Video and YouTube. Compensation and a ban on the use of the technologies were sought by Xerox.