Trademarks

The social media company Pinterest, known for permitting its users to view, post and organise content by creating pins on their virtual Pinterest Pinboard has lost two legal battles, one in the United Kingdom and another in the United States of America. The lawsuits intended to obligate companies to cease using the word “pin” in their software applications.

The aforementioned cases revolved around an American travel start-up company called Pintrips and a British location-based mobile directory called Free118. The latter used the word “pimmydeal” in one of its services.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has informed that the official fees for most intellectual property transactions will be increased. The measure will most likely become effective as from the 21st of December, 2015.

The increase will affect all trademark, patents and industrial design applications filed after the aforementioned date as well as retroactively for pending applications.

The decision has not been officially announced yet, the announcement will most probably be published in the Official Gazette on the 21st of December this year.

Since the former Sudanese territory corresponding to the states of Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria became independent on 9 July 2011, the status of protection of Intellectual Property Rights is uncertain in the new country and the implementation of the new law is still pending.

To reassure the investors, the Ministry of Justice of South Sudan had decided to accept applications for registrations of trademarks at the Registrar of Companies, guided by the Sudan Trade Marks Act of 196.

There have been new developments regarding the digitization of the Nigerian Trade Mark database. The Nigerian Registry of Trademarks, Patents & Designs has issued an update regarding their data capture project. The announcement made by the Office claimed that the digitization of the Nigerian trade mark database will commence on the 1st of October 2015. The project counts with the collaboration of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The new Tunisian decree, Decree No. 2015-303, that repeals the Decree No. 2001-1603, came into force.

This decree introduced new changes regarding trademark applications and, mainly, trademark oppositions procedures.

The referred alterations are the following:

As of  September 28 of 2015, Canada has started to accept voluntary registrations of trademarks using the Nice Agreement (extended name: Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of marks), initial signed in 1957.

Canada was one of the few countries in the world that had not adhered to the Nice Classification that will now allow applicants to search for potential conflicting trademarks more easily, considering that trademarks will be arranged with similar goods/services.

The secession from Ukraine and consequent annexation to Russia of the territory of Crimea has resulted in the integration into the economic, financial, credit and legal system of the Russian Federation.

The treaty of March 18, 2014 that determined the terms of the annexation to Russia envisaged that Russian patents and trademarks would be valid and enforceable in the territory of Crimea, on the contrary to Ukrainian patents and trademarks which would no longer be considered valid or feasable.

New developments from Kit Kat and Lindt trademark cases.

Following Cadbury’s efforts to oppose the registration of Kit Kat’s 3-dimensional 4 finger chocolate bar trademark in the United Kingdom, the European Union Court of Justice (EUCJ) has issued a decision past September 16th.

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.