Andrew Musgrave

IP Australia has dismissed opposition by British American Tobacco to a patent sought by rival cigarette company Philip Morris that covers a resealable cigarette packet that claims to provide an improved experience for smokers.

A judge applied the “wrong test” when he considered the reputation of a trade mark in an infringement case alleging the marks of rival meat processors were deceptively similar, a Full Federal Court has found.

For the third time this year, IP Australia has upheld a challenge to a coffee capsule patent, finding that the patent, owned by a unit of German food giant Kruger, was not inventive.