Sunday, September 28, 2008

HEARING OF FIRST PRODUCT PATENT OPPOSITION


The Patent Office has begun the hearing of Pegasys, India's first product patent under the new Patent Act, which had been granted to Roche India, the Indian branch of the Swiss Hoffman La Roche, and then subsequently received one of India’s first post-grant opposition in March last year.

TRADEMARK THE ANTHEM?

The organizers of the 2010 Olympics have applied for registration of 2 lines of the Canadian National Anthem as a trademark.  The trade mark would only be able to be used to crack down on traders selling Olympic merchandise, rather than people actually singing the national anthem.

PATENT SUPER HIGHWAY

The EPO has just announced that the Patent Prosecution Highway (their capitals) is due to begin on 29 September.  This scheme will allow patent applications that have been examined and allowed in either the USPTO or the EPO to be fast-tracked in the other office.  The programme will run for a trial period of 1 year, after which the offices will assess whether it is worth being fully implemented