The Registered Trademark Symbol or ® means that the brand that it is attached to is a service or trade mark that has been registered with a national trade mark office. Like the trade mark (™) symbol, use of this
Hugo Boss v Sasalili Oxford Fia: The Strategy of Policing Luxury Brands
The Federal Court of Australia has recently awarded both compensatory and additional damages in the Hugo Boss Trade Mark Management GmbH & Co Kg v Sasalili Oxford Fia case. Exemplary damages were introduced into the Australian Trade Marks Act in April 2013.
Allusory Gold: High Court guidance on when foreign words can be registrable as trade marks in Australia
Author: Tim Francis, Principal In September 2013, the Full Federal Court of Australia found that the trade marks ORO (Italian for ‘gold’) and CINQUE STELLE (Italian – for ‘five stars’) were not registrable as due to a lack of distinctiveness. Those marks were originally registered in respect of coffee and various other goods, and the Full Federal Court held that, …
The Congress of Vienna 1814: 200 Years of Copyright Lobbying
The 100th anniversary of the commencement of World War 1 has, quite understandably, overshadowed another, older anniversary: 200 years since the outbreak of peace, manifested in the form of the Congress of Vienna. The principle purpose of the Congress of Vienna was for the victors of the Napoleonic Wars to work out what to do with European’s re-drawn borders. Napoleon …
A Summary of the New Legislation in New Zealand
The following presents a general summary of some, but not all of the changes made to the New Zealand Patents Act. It is not intended to replace legal advice.
The Price of New gTLDs (Generic Top Level Domains)
Last September 17th, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) held an auction for 3 new generic top level domains (gTLDs); namely .BUY, .TECH, and .VIP. The results of the auction are as follows: .buy was won by Amazon-EU S.a.r.l for $4,588,888, beating out 3 other applicants .tech was won by Dot Tech LLC for $6,760,000, beating out …
The meaning of “seat” limitations in a software license
This dispute is one to watch: it is ongoing and hopefully leads to a decision on a perennial issue that irritates software vendors. In June 1999, the Commonwealth Department of Defence and software vendor Attachmate Australasia Pty Ltd signed an agreement by which the Department of Defence had the rights to use Attachmate’s Extra! IBM 3270 terminal emulation software on …
Italian DOCG Wine Targeted By Counterfeiter
Brunello di Montalcino is a brand of red Italian wine produced in the vineyards around the town of Montalcino, roughly 120 km south of Florence in the Tuscany wine region. It is a wine with a formidable reputation dating back centuries, and is considered one of Italy’s best and rarest wines. In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino was awarded the first …
Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era: ALRC’s New Report
In June 2013, then-Australian Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus tasked the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to draft recommendations on how legislation can be tailored for the digital era and the serious invasions of privacy that seem to now be a constant source for tabloid gossip. This was no surprise. The increased use of Internet capable portable devices like smartphones and …
SEO & the Law – Seminar & Wine Tasting
SEO is a rapidly developing, independent field of marketing which has already developed case law – serving as both warning and guide to participants. This seminar covers: a) Google’s SEO guidelines, and black hat v white hat search engine tactics (and why black hat search engine tactics are contrary to law); b) Google Adwords and Australian court decisions on trade …