Prosecution

The British government intends to introduce a new legislation that would enable registered UK and European Community design holders with the option to mark their products with the address of a website that links to the relevant registered design numbers. The initiative counts with the support of several interested parties within the intellectual property community.

As from the 31st of October, 2015 trademark applicants in Algeria will be able to make better use of the Madrid Protocol for the International Registration of Marks. The Algerian government placed its instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol with the Director General of The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on the 31st of July this year. This proves beneficial to trademark owners in Algeria as they will now gain full access to the jurisdictions covered by the Madrid Protocol for International trademark protection.

The House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands has passed a new Trademarks Act on the 30th of April 2013. This legislative measure will bring extensive changes to Intellectual Property in the region and it will effectively come into force on the 1st of September 2015. The implementation of the new act will substitute the current Trademarks Act (Cap. 158) dated all the way back to 1887 and the United Kingdom Trademarks Act (Cap. 157) of 1946.

Business Magnate and 2016 Republican candidate to the White House Donald Trump has desired to add some new trademarks to his collection.
Trump’s entourage filed applications to trademark “Trumpocrat” and “Trumpublican” through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). According to the USPTO’s database, the trademarks are to present day classified as “abandoned”.

One of our IP attorneys from our Portugal office, Master Vitor Fidalgo, was yesterday distinguished with the First Award "Professor José de Oliveira Ascensão" as part of his Master's thesis entitled "Compulsory licenses of Industrial Property Rights".

In March 2014 an Irish fast food chain filed a Community trademark (CTM) application seeking the protection of its commercial distinctive sign “Supermac’s”.

Having a three month period to do so, McDonald’s filed an opposition against this application in July 2014. The giant fast food chain, having several CTMs covering, among others, classes 29, 30 and 43, which comprises food and drink products and services, stated that these two trademarks would confuse consumers.

It is noteworthy that these two trademarks have been co-existing in Ireland since 1978.

In order to update trademark files, The Angolan Intellectual Property Office (IAPI) issued a notification, requesting all applicants and/or attorneys of trademark applications numbered from 1 (one) to 5000 (five thousand) to present the following documents:

1) Copy of the official filing receipt or application request;
2) Power of Attorney;
3) Certificate of Incorporation, proving the company's commercial activity in its native country;
4) Renewal applications, if any;
5) Changes in ownership or applicant's name/address, if any.

Since 2011 the Ministry of Trade and Industry from Kurdistan is claiming that Iraqi trademark registrations before Iraqi PTO in Baghdad no longer cover Iraq jurisdiction. Now, the State Council of Iraq has issued an opinion clarifying this question, informing that there is no longer possibility of extending the trademark registrations from Iraq to Kurdistan. In this sense, Kurdistan is now a completely independent IP jurisdiction and the protection have to be sought directly before Kurdistan authorities.

The Sixty-eighth session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) took place in Geneva 18–26 May 2015. One of the issues that have been addressed was the high prices of medicines in Europe. Actually this is a growing problem in the EU. In the past few years the price of the medicines have been increasing exceeding the ability of the patients to pay for it. It is enough to recall the recent case involving the drugs to treat hepatitis C (HCV) which have an unsustainable price when compared to previous generation treatments.

Several negotiations between the governments of the US and Cuba are warming up Cold War reminiscences that to this day still impact the travel of persons, goods and money between this Caribbean island and the US.