E- FILING OF TRADEMARKS IN FRANCE

The French Trade Mark Office (INPI) has officially launched its e-filing platform this morning athttp://depot-marque.inpi.fr (available in French only). The online filing of French trade mark applications had been tested this summer with several trade mark professionals.

CSIR TO SET UP HOLDING COMPANY

To monotezie its inventory of patnets, CSIR is planning on setting up a holding company, to whom all patents nealry amounting to 300 would be transferred, to liscence out and sell patents to companies like Intellectual Ventures so as to make the maximum money out of the liscensing and giving out of patents which they hold.

CSIR presently spend a huge amount of money maintaining and filing patents than it earns from the revenues of the patents.

uch a move would increse profit margins and the technology could alos be use to alleviate the conditons of the poor.

NATONAL INNOVATION ACT, 2008

India has unveiled the National Innovation Act, 2008 . The aim of the act as satated in the preamble is  as follows;

"An Act to facilitate public, private or public- private partnership initiatives for building an Innovation support system to encourage Innovation, evolve a National Integrated Science and Technology Plan and codify and consolidate the law of confidentiality in aid of protecting Confidential Information, trade secrets and Innovation. "

 To access the full act. go to http://dst.gov.in/draftinnovationlaw.pdf

HARI PUTTAR

For more news on the review of the movie Harri Puttar please visit http://spicyipindia.blogspot.com/2008/09/hari-puttar-reviewing-movie-and.html

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