An infringement ruling against US singer Katy Perry in a case brought by an Australian fashion designer is a “win for the little guy”, experts say, showing that fame doesn’t give celebrities a blank cheque to exploit their brand at the expense of someone’s else’s registered trade mark.
Graphics design platform Canva has overcome opposition to it being granted further time to apply to patent an invention for generating websites, after IP Australia found its US patent attorneys made an “error or omission” by failing to track expiration dates for registering the patent.
A German company and its director have been ordered to pay over $350,000 in damages to the patent holder of a infringing device used to detect âletsâ in tennis that was used at the Australian Open for three years.
In what a judge has dubbed a âtale of two women, two teenage dreams and one nameâ, US pop star Katy Perry has lost her bid to cancel the âKatie Perryâ trade mark owned by an Australian designer and has been barred her from using her stage name to market clothing merchandise.Â
A consortium of parmigiano reggiano producers has lost its opposition to registration of a parmesan trade mark in Australia by an international group dedicated to protecting common names from being monopolised.
The High Court has been asked to weigh in on whether online ads targeting Australian consumers can be the basis for a trade mark registration, in a long-running intellectual property spat between the maker of Mother Energy drinks and Vittoria Coffee over their respective ‘mother’ marks.
Intellectual property group IPH has revealed that a limited set of data originating from Spruson & Ferguson’s systems, including client information, was downloaded by an unauthorised third party in last month’s cyber attack.
Coffee brand Vittoria can’t transfer a case over the trade mark for rival Moccona’s instant coffee jar from one Federal Court registry to another, with a judge reminding the company that the court was “well into the 21st century” and could livestream hearings without the need for interstate travel.
Car electronics company Directed Electronics has challenged a ruling that partially dismissed its case over the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets by a former manager, who was found to have pocketed $3.6 million in commissions through a secret agreement with rival Hanhwa.
Monster Energy has been sued by an inventor who claims that the beverage giant infringed his patent for laser etched pull tabs like those used to package its energy drinks.