Stay up to date with the latest intellectual property developments from New Zealand and around the world.
In International Consolidated Business Pty Ltd v SC Johnson & Sons Ltd 2020 NZSC 110 the Supreme Court partially overturned the Court of Appeal judgment, but still upheld the Court of Appeal’s conclusion that SC Johnson’s mark can proceed to registration.
Read moreIn InterAg v Bayer Intellectual Property GmbH 2020 NZIPOTM 21 the Assistant Commissioner revoked a trade mark after finding that a ban on the use of a product did not constitute special circumstances sufficient for justifying the non-use of a registered trade mark that was used in relation to a product that contained the banned product.
Read moreIn Tigercat International Inc v Caterpillar Inc 2020 NZIPOTM 18 the Assistant Commissioner denied Caterpillar’s request to halt a second proceeding involving an identical mark covering the same and some additional class 7 goods primarily due to the potential relevance of their different filing dates and the consequent absence of issue estoppel.
Read moreThe Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources has commissioned a Patents Accessibility Review with a view to ensuring that the standard patent system is as accessible as possible to Australia’s Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Read moreThe recent Assistant Commissioner’s decision Waiwera LLC v Savernake Holdings Ltd [2020] NZIPOTM 16 involved actions against some of each side’s applications or registrations, with Savernake being successful in both respects despite being yet to trade.
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