28th March , 2010

Dish TV and Big TV fight over trademark

The direct-to-home (DTH) industry is a fast growing business in the media and entertainment world and has over 22 million subscriptions between six private DTH operators in our country. At present Dish TV is the largest DTH operator in India with over 6.5 million subscribers, followed by Sun Direct, Tata Sky, and Airtel Digital TV.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance-ADAG has applied for trademark registration of its DTH service (Big TV) as “Big Dish TV” and “Reliance Dish TV” to the office of the Trade Mark registry in Mumbai, which is being objected to by Subhash Chandra’s Dish TV.

Dish TV has been using the name “Dish TV” from 2003 after obtaining necessary approvals from the authority. Dish TV lawyers allege that Reliance has filed the application only to confuse the public and gain advantage out of the “Dish TV” mark, a well established DTH brand. They appealed that the Reliance application should be rejected on this basis.

Virtual Phone Number Patent for Vonage

Vonage Holdings Corp., a provider of high-quality voice and messaging services over broadband networks, has been granted a virtual phone number patent. The patent titled "Method and Apparatus for Placing a Long Distance Call Based on a Virtual Phone Number," allows users to communicate to distant places without incurring long distance or international calling charges. 

This patent is Vonage's second patent related to the use of virtual phone numbers.  Its first patent granted on June 10, 2008 was intended for the use of virtual phone numbers.

Virtual phone numbers allow people to make long distance calls at the price of a local call.  Vonage customers can choose a virtual phone number in the calling area of a person with whom they wish to communicate and converse at local call rates.  A virtual number is used for inbound calls and all features including caller ID and voicemail assigned to the primary number continue to function. Virtual phone numbers are offered by Vonage across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom and in 14 other countries.

Walt-Disney in Intellectual Property dispute

Walt-Disney had acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. With this acquisition it received a well-stocked collection of comic characters including some of the world’s best known superheroes such as the X-Men, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.

But there is an ongoing battle between Marvel and the heirs of Jack Kirby, the artist who created many of these legendary comic characters. Jack Kirby’s heirs had won a profit-sharing deal against Marvel in 2009, as a result of which, a part of Superman profits was given to the heirs. The Kirby family now wishes to reclaim the ownership of the cartoon characters and has filed a lawsuit against Marvel and Disney.

Marvel and Disney have hit back with a counter-lawsuit. Now both the parties are claiming to be the rightful owners of the characters. The outcome of this legal battle will draw attention to the importance of Intellectual property laws in the field of entertainment.

Exclusive rights to Total Energy Care™ to sell patented renewable energy product

Total Energy Care™ known as TEC, which is one of Canada’s largest renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions companies has attained rights to develop and sell a newly patented renewable energy product known as the GATE G system within Canada.
 
Gravitational & Air Transfer Electrical Generation system or GATE G is the innovation of Jeff Cole, who is also a TEC dealer and it is at the stage of Patent Issuance and Publication after passing through the examination phase in the USPTO and has a patent pending in Canada.

Jeff’s innovative idea that the Sun’s heat can not only be used for heating but also to generate electricity without making steam had led him to this ground-breaking technology. TEC expects the commercial release of this product as soon as 2011 and thinks that Jeff’s technology is fit for Local Distribution Companies (LDC’s) to deal for low cost electricity generation as well as businesses and commercial locations installing them for their own power needs.

South Korea to impose IPR on imports

The South Korean Government will ban imports of products that violate local intellectual property rights starting this July. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy of the South Korean Government has said that the new rules will apply to products that infringe on local patents, designs, logos and other exclusive rights held by South Korean companies.

The new preventive move comes after a law was passed by the South Korean Parliament to authorize the Korea Customs Service (KCS) not to exempt such infringing products and the Korea Trade Commission to give details of such products to the customs officials and to take stringent administrative actions such as the issuing of fines.

Losses sustained by intellectual property rights violations in South Korea reached 316.6 billion won (278.3 million U.S. dollars) in 2008, which was more than 63.2 percent from the previous year.

US patent for Suven Life Sciences

Suven Life Sciences, a Hyderabad, India-based biopharmaceutical company has received a US patent for one of their New Chemical Entity (NCE), which is used for treating disorders related to neurodegenerative diseases.
The patent is valid until 2025 and the granted claims of the patent include the class of selective 5-HT compounds discovered by Suven Life Sciences. These compounds are useful in the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson's disease and Schizophrenia.

Suven Life Sciences now has five granted US product patents for their NCEs in CNS therapy. Products out of these patented inventions, which are exclusive IP of Suven may be out-licensed at various phases of pre-clinical and clinical development.

Transgene Biotek files patents for AIDS vaccine and Multiple Sclerosis drug

Transgene Biotek Limited has filed two new patents based on a novel auto-immune technology. The first patent for the therapeutic AIDS vaccine is aimed at restoration of cellular immune responses against HIV and to control the spread of HIV.

The second patent filed was for a drug against the neurological disorder, multiple sclerosis, with an auto-immune technology which imparts selective cytotoxcity.

More than 25 million have lost their lives because of AIDS till now and 33 million people are estimated to have HIV. And multiple sclerosis is the most common disabling neurological condition in young adults and nearly 2.5 million people worldwide have Multiple Sclerosis.

Transgene Biotek Limited had also filed two patents earlier this year for Liver and Breast cancer drugs, built on its proprietary RNAI platform, one of the first few companies in the world to advance the drugs to critical stages using RNAi platform.

Apple files Mobile Social Networking Patent Request

Apple Inc. is seeking a patent for technology that would make it possible for users of the iPhone or other mobile devices to form a temporary social network to communicate and share information during tradeshows, concerts, rallies or other event.

The patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office describes a service called iGroups which would allow people to share geographic location data in order to connect using an iPhone. People connecting to the network would be able to transmit information in real-time through text and instant messaging and also share files, such as pictures or video.

The service would also be accessible to people with mobile devices other than the iPhone. Apple's MobileMe service could be used to add mobile phones without global positioning system (GPS) to a group. Members' calendars, address books, and other applications could be used to offer additional information and services to the temporary network.