Legal Information and Alerts on Trademarks and Intellectual Property
Enforcement of IP Rights in China
China’s Vice-Commerce Minister, Ma Xiuhong, has told guests at the Global Forum on Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Innovation in Beijing that the country is devoting “unprecedented” levels of resources to the protection of IP rights, while warning that such a system “cannot be completed overnight”.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is currently consulting regarding Australia acceding to the Protocol Amending the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). This Protocol would allow Member countries with limited or no manufacturing capacity to access patented pharmaceuticals made under compulsory license in another WTO Member.
> click here for case details
On 6 February 2007, the Federal Government announced its support for 31 of the 34 recommendations made by a committee commissioned to review the disclosure provisions of the Franchising Code of Conduct.
The Patents Act 1990 will allow patent of an intangible product, which may include computer software, where the software is novel and inventive, and provides a commercially useful effect. However, the Australian Patent Office will reject patent applications for computer software if the software is merely a set of working directions constituted by mathematical algorithms.
Australian companies are increasingly eager to break into the booming Chinese market, yet there can be pitfalls for the unwary. One potential trap is a ‘buyer’ scam in which a company may outlay substantial amounts in ‘commissions’ or other pre-contractual payments in order to seal a deal which turns out to be non-existent
The Federal Court has allowed an appeal by Pfizer Products Inc against a decision of the Delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks accepting the trade mark HERBAGRA for registration in Australia. Pfizer, who is the registered owner of the mark VIAGRA in Australia, argued that the respondent Joseph Karam’s mark was deceptively similar to VIAGRA and likely to deceive or cause confusion in the marketplace.