A judge has shot down Monster Energy’s opposition to Japanese software company Mixi registering the ‘Monster Strike’ trade mark in Australia for its popular video game of the same name, the second judge to find the energy drink maker’s standalone ‘Monster’ mark does not have a significant reputation in Australia.
A judge has rejected calls by mining tool company Globaltech and driller Boart Longyear to disqualify himself from hearing a patent infringement case against them, despite ruling in an earlier proceeding that the patent was valid and that Globaltech had infringed it.
Caterpillar has scored a victory in one of several legal challenges the construction equipment manufacturer has launched to protect its ‘cat’ trade marks, successfully opposing the registration of the ‘ironcat’ mark for tyres and auto maintenance.
IP boutique Griffith Hack will soon have around 80 practicing lawyers when it absorbs Australia’s oldest specialist intellectual property firm Watermark next year.
Rio Tinto subsidiary Technological Resources has successfully challenged a decision by IP Australia to reject a patent application for a method of separating mined material, with a judge finding the claimed invention was not a collection of mere working directions as a delegate had found.
BASF has dropped a lawsuit alleging Sherwood Chemicals infringed two of its patents for an underground termite control system.
Rival firms Apple Inc and Swatch AG have both failed in their opposition to the other’s trade mark extension application, with a delegate for the trade marks office allowing Apple’s Tick Different and Swatch’s Think Different to proceed to registration in Australia.
A catfight has broken out between construction equipment and workwear maker Caterpillar and sneaker giant Puma, with Caterpillar arguing Puma’s ‘procat’ trade mark is deceptively similar to its ‘cat’ marks.
Sherwood Chemicals wants to exterminate claims alleging it infringed two patents held by US chemical giant BASF for an underground termite control system, saying the patents were invalid and that any infringement, if it occurred, was innocent.
Chemicals giant BASF has dragged an Australian pest control company to court for allegedly violating its patent for an underground termite control system.