IP Think Tank Global Week in Review – 9 November 2007

Here is IP Think Tank’s weekly selection of top
intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet. Due to popular demand, I will have a separate section for Pharmaceutical Industry items from this week.

Interesting news this week (well, the end of last week) was the lawsuit by JK Rowlings and Warner Bros over the print version of an online Lexicon created by fans.

Please join the discussion by adding your comments on any
of these stories, and please do let me know if you think we’ve missed
something
important, or if there is a source you think should be monitored.

You
can separately subscribe to the IP Thinktank Global week in Review at http://thinkipstrategy.com/subscribe/

Global

• IP Think Tank top five’s: (IP Think Tank),
• More on IP law in the virtual world: (VirtualLaw),
• Interesting times for the Citi brand: (IAM),
• Velcro has won control of the domain name velcro.biz: (OUT-LAW),
• The Economic Value of Patent ‘Trolls’: (IP Think Tank),
• Industry Trilateral group and the ‘global patent application’ project: (PatentDocs),
• Update on the BitTorrent war – measures used by ISPs: (IP Law Daily),

Pharma

• Compulsory drug licence scheme inches forward (IPLaw360), (Generic Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Flomax (Tamsulosin) – Ranbaxy prevails in litigation against Astellas Pharma Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim: (IPLaw360), (Generic Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Altace (Ramipril) – FDA request for comments on 180-Day exclusivity draws letters from 8 generics: (OrangeBookBlog), (Generic Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Yaz – Bayer AG has filed a lawsuit against Watson Laboratories Inc., alleging
  patent infringement related to the oral contraceptive Yaz: (IPLaw360),
• Korea’s Fair Trade Commission imposed $22 million in fines on 10 local
  companies for unfair trading practices, including provision of illegal rebates to hospitals and wholesalers: (Korea Law Blog),
• Interpol will join the fight against the growing trade in Africa: (MedIndia),
• AIDS Law Project and Treatment Action Campaign filed a competition
  complaint in South Africa, charging that the drugmaker refuses to grant
  a sufficient number of licenses to generic companies: (Generic Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Crestor (Rosuvastatin) – Cobalt files Para IV: (Generic Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Lotrel (amlodipine / benazepril) – Mylan alleges patent invalidity: (IPLaw360),
• Acarbose – Controversy over Acarbose 180-Day Exclusivity Heats Up: (FDA Law Blog),

Australia

• After 8 years, the Director General of IP Australia, Dr Ian Heath, has announced his resignation: (IPWars),
• Comment on the extradition of Hew Griffiths from Australia to the US for alleged violations of US copyright law: (Patry),
• IP Australia is requesting submissions on the preferred incorporation model for patent and trade mark attorneys: (ipmenu),

Canada

• Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. has sued Sears Canada Inc.,
  alleging that the Canadian company failed to pay required royalties for
  use of the trademark “MARTHA STEWART EVERYDAY” on a line of merchandise: (Now Why Didn’t I think of that?),
• free video lecture by David Vaver, Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, University of Oxford: (Now Why Didn’t I Think of That),
• Canadian study finds file sharers buy more CDs: (IP Law Daily),

China

• China’s New Anti-Monopoly Law: More Power to the People or the Government?: (China Business Law Blog),

• Chinese toy manufacturers are now looking to sue Mattel for damage done to the industry’s reputation: (The China Game), (China Hearsay),

• Chinese IP Protection: If you don’t like it, enjoin it: (China Law Blog),

Europe

• Is Europe inching towards a agreement on a single patent jurisdiction? (Portuguese EU Presidency creates another patent policy suggestion): (IAM), (IPKat),
• European Court of Justice ruled that Italy’s enforcement of Italy’s law on SIAE signs (which must be used to indicate genuine products) can not be enforced against an individual Case C‑20/05: (IPKat),
• Status of EPC2000 Ratification (EPC Member States not depositing the Instrument of Ratification for EPC
  2000 by December 13, 2007, will automatically leave the European Patent
  Convention): (BLOG@IP::JUR),

France

• Wikimedia Foundation is not responsible for defamatory comments published in its user-generated encyclopaedia Wikipedia: (Out-law), (CopyrightFrance),

Germany

• District Court of Dusseldorf holds that Kingbright had infringed Osram’s basic patent and utility model rights: (ESM),

India

• Super Cassettes Industries Limited (SCIL), which owns the T-Series
  label, has won an interim restraining order against YouTube and its
  parent company Google in a copyright infringement case: (SpicyIP),
• Indian ingenuity in the pharma industry – not just generics: (SpicyIP),
• Bajaj-TVS spat revs up again: (SpicyIP),
• India has taken up with the US the issue of protecting Indian traditional knowledge from being patented in that country: (SpicyIP),

Japan

• Japan, which currently has a term of life of the author plus 50 years, has been reviewing proposals to move to life plus 70: (Patry),

Korea

• 3M Korea Ltd, it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the District Court of Seoul, Korea against LGS Co Ltd over optical films used to manage light in liquid crystal displays: (CNN),

Portugal

• Portuguese EU Presidency has created another Document 14492/07 titled
  Towards an EU Patent Jurisdiction – Points for discussion addresses to
  the Working Party on Intellectual Property (Patents): (IPKat),

Thailand

• Compulsory licences – Thai government officials said the latest round of negotiations with
  patent owners of cancer treatment drugs showed positive results: (IPWatch),

United States

• Harry Potter litigation over derivative work (print version of a Lexicon) by a fan: (IPLaw360), (Patry), (IP Law Daily), (WSJ), (Trademark Blog),
• California jury awarded Baxter International Inc. more than $14.2
  million in a patent suit over hemodialysis technology initiated by
  Fresenius Medical Care: (IPLaw360),
• 31 venture capitalists wrote to Senators Leahy and Specter,
  opposing major portions of the Patent Reform Act of 2007: (Patent Prospector), (IAM), (IPBiz),
• Vonage settled with AT&T for $39 million. Vonage had previously
  put behind it, at considerable expense, suits from Verizon ($120
  million) and Sprint Nextel ($80 million) (Patent Prospector), (IPLAW360),
• Prince is threatening to sue fans over their Internet use of his photos
  and other Prince-inspired material, which he alleges constitutes
  copyright infringement: (Media Law Prof.), (Impact), (43Blog),
• Comment on the extradition of Hew Griffiths from Australia to the US for alleged violations of US copyright law: (Patry),
• USPTO Continuation Rules injunction saga -what’s next: (MarylandIPLaw), (PatentDocs), (Patently’O), (I/P Updates),
• Ex-DuPont Chemist sentenced for stealing data: (IPLaw360), (TradeSecrets Blog),
• Business Method Patents and patentable subject matter back before the CAFC: (271Blog), (Patently’O),
• eBay trademark infringed by ‘PerfumeBay’ but not ‘Purfume Bay’: (Blawgletter), (I/P Updates),
• Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and 10 others sued for infringement of a patent that claims creating a profile based on
  a user’s linguistic patterns and incorporating that information into
  Internet searches: (IPLaw360), (Patent Troll Tracker),
• Doctrine of Equivalents can be used to expand the claimed concentration range [US Philips Corp. v. Iwasaki Elec. Co. Ltd., Fed. Cir. No. 2007-1117 11/2/07) ]: (IP Law Observer),
• US Lawmakers Seek To Fuel International IP Enforcement Activities: (IPWatch),