Here is IP Think Tank’s weekly
selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and
internet.

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
the Subscribe page: http://thinkipstrategy.com/subscribe/

Highlights this week included:

• Google fails to obtain pan-EU trade
  mark protection for ‘Gmail’ due to confusingly similar German trade mark: (Class
  46), (Ars
  Technica),
• UK High
  Court overturns UKIPO decision to refuse computer program patent application in
  Symbian’s Patent Application, UKIPO
  announces it will appeal (equivalent patent granted by EPO): (IPKat), (Out-Law), (Peter Zura’s 271 Patent Blog), (IPEG), (Techdirt), (IP Law360), (IP Factor),
• India considers Bayh-Dole type legislation: (IAM),
  (PLI),
  (Spicy
  IP),

Global

Global – General

• WIPO Director General hails 125th anniversary of Paris
  Convention: (WIPO)

• Global – Trade
  Marks / Domain Names / Brands
• WIPO:
  domain ‘pradagirls.com’ registered in bad faith: (Class
  46),
• INTA Advanced Trademark Symposium: (Report 1 – IPKat),
  (Report 2 – IPKat),
  (Report 3 – IPKat),
  (Report 4 – IPKat),
  (Report 5 – IPKat),
  (Report 6 – IPKat),
  (Report 7 – IPKat),
  (Catch Us
  If You Can!!!),
• INTA roundtable on ‘Internet domain names: A
  trademark practitioner’s point of view’ – Manhattan,
  14 April: (The
  Trademark Blog),
• INTA trade mark conference, Sydney: OHIM President offers to host
  roundtable to cut red tape facing businesses attempting to obtain worldwide IP
  protection: (IPwar’s)
• Domain tasting: why are IP owners silent?: (IP finance),
• ICANN proposes new anti-domain tasting solution: (Out-Law),
• Three strikes, three countries:France, Japan
  and Sweden:
  (Electronic
  Frontier Foundation)

Global – Patents

• TRIPS
  Council: Half of WTO membership backs biodiversity amendment: (Intellectual Property
  Watch),
• The
  costs and benefits of patents to innovators: (Patently-O),
  (response from Patent
  Prospector),
• Discussion of ‘Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put
  Innovators at Risk’ by economists Bessen and Meurer: (IAM),
  (Technological
  Innovation and Intellectual Property), (Techdirt),
• The
  wonderful world of patent drafting: (IP
  ThinkTank),
• Innocentive:
  open innovation marketplace: (Spicy
  IP),
• E-IP,
  LLC (www.TechTransferOnline.com)
  becomes the place to go for IP: (Philip
  Brooks)

Global – Copyright

• Sound
  copyright: (Creative
  Commons),
• WIPO:
  Panellists outline strategies on exceptions and limitations to copyright: (Intellectual Property
  Watch),
• WIPO
  Copyright Committee considers many proposals for 2008 Work Program: (IP
  Justice),
• ISPs
  and P2P: (Michael
  Geist),
• File-sharing,
  LimeWire, identity thieves, and 9-year-olds: Solutions are needed: (IPcentral.info),
• WIPO
  panel sees tension between IP and human rights: (Intellectual Property
  Watch),
• DRM
  gets another lease of life – reports that iTunes will launch scheme allowing
  unlimited downloads for a monthly fee: (IMPACT)

Pharma
& Biotech

Pharma & Biotech – General

• Are
  generic medicines inferior compared to branded medicines?: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• EU:
  Counterfeit medicines in the EU: a new consultation: (Class
  46)
• Thailand US
  Trade Representative to ‘talk’ to Thai government: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),

• US:
  Cellectis SA files suit against Precision BioSciences, alleging infringement of
  two patents relating to materials used to make genome modifications in certain
  types of organisms: (IP
  Law360),

• US:
  PharmaBiotech IP Summit 28-30 May, Philadelphia will address
  patent reform and its potential impact on IP practitioners within the pharmaceutical
  and biotech industries: (Patent
  Baristas),

• US:
  Legislators introduce Follow-on Biologics Bill: (IP
  Law360), (Patent
  Docs),
• US:
  Want generic biotech? You might wait 14 more years: (GenericsWeb),
• US:
  Hypocrisy at FTCR?: (IPBiz),
• US:
  Two remaining challenged WARF embryonic stem cell patents upheld in ex parte
  reexamination: (Holman’s
  Biotech IP Blog),

Pharma & Biotech – Products

• Aricept
  (Donepezil) – USV wins appeal against USPTO decision: (Spicy
  IP),
• Celerex
  (Celecoxib) – CAFC decision in Celebrex patents dispute between Pfizer and Teva
  will cut patent term by one and a half years: (Patent
  Baristas),

• Inersan
  – Ranbaxy in-licenses Inersan to CD Pharma to market in India and Nepal: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),

• Lipitor
  (Atorvastatin) – Federal Court of Appeal in Canada upholds Lipitor enantiomer
  patent, Decision prevents launch of generic product by Ranbaxy until 2010: (SmartBrief),
• Mircera (Methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta) – In defiance of Kinik, Federal Circuit rules 271(e)(1)
  safeharbour applies to ITC action against importation of product made by
  patented process: Amgen v ITC and Roche
  Diagnostics: (Patently-O), (Patent Prospector), (IP Updates), (IP Law360), (Patent
  Circle),
• Strattera (Atomoxetine) – US District Court of Virginia dismisses patent
  dispute between Eli Lilly & Co. and Synthon Laboratories despite objections
  from one of Synthon’s co-defendants facing similar claims in another district:
  (IP
  Law360),
• Sutent
  (Sunitinib) / Tarceva (Erlotinib) – Roche expected to assert its right to
  attend compulsory license hearing at Delhi Patent Office: (Intellectual Property
  Watch),
• Tarceva
  (Erlotinib) – Delhi High Court allows Cipla to continue manufacturing Erlotinib
  until a final ruling is given in its case against Roche: (Spicy
  IP), (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP), (IP
  Law360),
• TriCor
  (Fenofibrate) – 18 states and District of Columbia file lawsuit alleging Abbott
  Laboratories and Fournier Industrie et Sante conspired to delay a generic
  version of TriCor reaching the market by filing a series of frivolous patent
  infringement lawsuits: (IP
  Law360), (GenericsWeb),
  (Therapeutics
  Daily),
• Uroxatral
  (Alfuzosin) – Sanofi-Aventis sues Wockhardt over Uroxatral patent in US: (IP
  Law360),
• Valcyte
  (Valganciclovir) – US District Court dismisses Ranbaxy’s motion for summary
  judgment in patent infringement suit launched by Roche Palo Alto over Roche’s
  patent for Valcyte: (IP
  Law360),
• XenaDerm
  – US District Court refuses to dismiss Healthpoint and DPT Laboratories’
  lawsuit accusing Allen Pharmaceutical and another of wrongly claiming their
  product is a generic equivalent of XenaDerm: (IP
  Law360)

Africa

• South Africa Supreme Court of
  Appeal decision on security of costs: D W Zietsma Electronic Media Network Limited: (Afro-IP),
• Namibia Industrial Property Draft
  Bill circulated for comment: (Afro-IP),
• Who owns ‘Africa money’?: (Afro-IP)

Australia

• Professor Fitzgerald’s opinion article ‘It’s
  vital to sort out ownership of ideas’: (IP:KCE)

Brazil

• Brazil wrestles with decision on GM corn, seed patenting:
  (Intellectual Property
  Watch),
• PTO recognized as international
  patent search authority: (International
  Law Office)

Canada

• Trade
  mark statistics – CIPO 2006-2007 Annual Report: (Canadian Trademark Blog)
• IP
  injunctions in Canada:
  (ipblog.ca),
• Professor
  Ariel Katz’ research project on copyright collectives: (Michael Geist),
• Claude
  Brunet keynote address at Access Copyright meeting: (Creators’ Copyright Coalition),
• Responding
  to the International Intellectual Property Alliance’s ‘inaccuracies and
  hyperbole’: (Michael Geist),
• Canadian
  PTO’s new position on signal claims: (IP Law360),
• Statscan
  reports Canadian music industry maintains profitability: (Michael Geist),
• CBC to
  release program DRM-free via BitTorrent: (Michael Geist), (Ars Technica),
• Canadian
  courts get tough on counterfeiters: (International Law Office),
• SAC
  defends proposal to legalise file-sharing: (Michael Geist),
• Industry
  Committee launches new study on science and technology: (Michael Geist)

China

• Sobering thoughts from China IP
  protection statistics and projections: (IAM),
• Obviousness under Chinese patent
  law: (IP
  Updates),
• Interview with WorkTools cofounder
  regarding experience with Chinese and Taiwanese patents: (IP
  Dragon), (IP
  Dragon),
• The IPR Crises: (Ezine
  @rticles)

Europe

• Eurostat publishes new edition of
  report ‘Science, Technology and Innovation in Europe’: (IPR-Helpdesk)
• Data protection of children:
  ensuring consent as children mature: (Out-Law), (Techdirt),
• COMMUNIA conference on public
  domain in the digital age – Belgium, 30 June to 1 July: (opencontentlawyer.com),
• Martini SpA enjoys double victory
  against Martini & Rossi before the OHIM Board of Appeal: (Class
  46),
• OHIM: Google fails to obtain pan-EU trade mark protection for ‘Gmail’ due to confusingly similar German trade mark (Class 46), (Ars
  Technica),
• EC holding inquiry into trade mark
  system in Europe: (IPwar’s),
• Results of OHIM User Satisfaction Survey
  2007: (Class
  46), (BLOG@IP::JUR)

France

• More
  counterfeit goods seized in 2007: (Class 46),
• News from
  patent attorneys and lawyers professions merger deliberations: (BLOG@IP::JUR)

Germany

• Current issue of PMZ with Federal
  Patent Court statistics: (Class
  46),
• German government unable to correct
  London Agreement implementation law in due time: (BLOG@IP::JUR),
• German court tightens up ISP, phone
  data retention rules: (Ars
  Technica)

India

• Two Kerala rice varieties get GIs:
  (Spicy
  IP),
• India considers Bayh-Dole type
  legislation: (IAM),
  (PLI),
  (Spicy
  IP),
• ‘Gillette defence’ used in Indian
  patent case J Mitra and Co Pvt Ltd v
  Kesar Medicaments: (International
  Law Office),
• Content owners join forces to
  combat low revenue shares, piracy: (Content
  Sutra),
• Indian government issues IP
  Enforcement Rules: (Spicy
  IP),
• Spicy IP interview with Director
  General of CSIR, Dr Samir K Brahmachari: (Spicy
  IP)

Ireland

• Irish ISP, Eircom, sued by record labels over file-sharing by users: (Out-Law)

Israel

• Israel
  rebukes US: Our copyright laws are fine, thanks: (Ars
  Technica), (IP
  Factor),
• Trade
  mark for ‘Bladeless Razor’ rejected for descriptiveness: (IP
  Factor)

Italy

• Italian
  Supreme Court decides compatible bricks for Lego systems ‘not unfair competition’:
  (Class
  46),
• Consorzio
  del Prosciutto di Parma crackdown on fake Parma hams sold in Italy: (Class
  46)

Japan

• ISPs to take on downloaders: (IPKat)

Lithuania

• Supreme Court decision clears way
  for Lithuanian collecting society to claim levies from all Lithuanian importers
  of blank media: (IPKat)

Netherlands

• District
  Court in The Hague dismisses trade mark claims brought by Andy Scott of British
  pop band The Sweet against Galaxy Music BV: (Class 46)

Norway

• EFTA guidance on international exhaustion requested in L’Oreal Norge AS v Smart Club Norge AS: (Class
  46)

Poland

• No confusion between MAKROTERM and
  MAKRO: (Class
  46),
• High fees for trade marks: (Class
  46)

Serbia

• New Serbian .rs domain name is a success: (Class
  46)

Sweden

• Sweden becoming less friendly to file sharing: (Techdirt),
• Swedish Pirate Party rejects Swedish plan to enable courts to order ISPs to
  reveal IP addresses of file-sharers: (Ars
  Technica)

Switzerland

• Lower fees for trade marks: (Class
  46),
• Revision of Swiss copyright law raises moderate protest: (Intellectual Property
  Watch)

United Kingdom

• Yahoo! – UK decision on
  sponsored linking and trade mark infringement: (Rouse & Co International),
• Worldwide
  piracy crackdown threatens ISPs: (IMPACT),
• High
  Court overturns UKIPO decision to refuse computer program patent application in
  Symbian’s Patent Application, UKIPO
  announces it will appeal (equivalent patent granted by EPO): (IPKat), (Out-Law), (Peter Zura’s 271 Patent Blog), (IPEG), (Techdirt), (IP Law360), (IP Factor),
• JK
  Rowling sues to block fan site’s Harry Potter book: (Out-Law),
• DSS’s UK patent
  invalidated in European Central Bank v
  Document Security Systems Inc: (IPKat),
• Scottish
  Court hands down judgment in passing-off case Wise Property Care Limited v White Thomson Preservation Limited &
  Ors: (IPKat),
• Government
  must take data protection more seriously, says Parliamentary committee: (Out-Law),
• Personal
  data: Information Commissioner to focus on reducing risk, not enforcement: (Out-Law)

United States

US
General

• IP
  litigation at the ITC: Recent developments and best practices: (Philip Brooks)

US
Patent Reform

• Crossroads ahead?: (Patent
  Prospector),
• S 1145 and reexamination: (Patent Prospector),
• Compromise on Patent Reform Bill,
  or mere delusion?: (IPBiz),
• Amendments to s 1145: (Patent
  Docs),
• Abbott spent $4.4 million on 2007
  lobbying effort: (Patent
  Docs),
• Nortel spent $560,000 lobbying for
  patent legislation in 2007: (Patent
  Prospector),
• Moving to first-to-file: (Patently-O),
• US Senate moves toward vote on
  reform to patent regime: (Intellectual Property
  Watch),
• Forbes article on US patent reform
  by Mr Shun-Kuo Su of Taiwan: (Patent Prospector),
• Patent re-exams improve patent quality;
  so why does Congress want to limit them?: (Techdirt),
• No reform stone left unturned: (IP
  Law360)

US
Patents

• Patent litigation statistics:
  Number of patents being litigated: (Patently-O),
  (response from Patent
  Prospector),
• PWC patent litigation statistics: (Patent
  Prospector), (more from Patent Prospector),
• Georgia-Pacific
  factors for royalty determination: (Patent Prospector),
• In defense of offense… defending
  against patent trolls: (phosita),
• Strategic use of a deficient office
  action (or why a call to an examiner might not be in an applicant’s best
  interests): (Patentably Defined),
• Spark-IP: Patent search tool: (Patent
  Librarian’s Notebook),
• Does decreasing the allowance rate
  improve the quality of US patents?: (IP
  Spotlight),
• USPTO patent allowance rates down
  to 54%: (IP
  Updates),
• Troll Tracker suit removed to
  Eastern District of Texas: (EDTexweblog.com),
• USPTO news: Change in procedure for
  withdrawing from representation: (Patent
  Docs), (IP
  Updates), (Anticipate
  This!), (PLI),
• Defunding the trolls: Attacking the
  damages claim: (IP
  Law360),
• Is information a patentable
  business method ‘product’?: (IP
  Directions),
• Senate amends 2009 budget to
  condemn diverting funds from the USPTO: (Patent Prospector),
  (Peter
  Zura’s 271 Patent Blog),
• Some are experts, others just
  provide opinions: Seitz v Envirotech Sys:
  (ISinIP),
• Why has the US Supreme Court been
  so interested in patent cases?: (phosita),
• Admissibility of settlement communications
  in patent infringement rule 11 proceedings: (Philip
  Brooks),
• Don’t feel so restricted –
  MPEP802.02 restriction practice: (Patent
  Prospector),
• Patent trolls: a selective
  etymology: (IP
  Law360)

US Copyright

• The
  unpleasantries of service of process: (Patry
  Copyright Blog),
• US:
  Pirates turned enforcers?: (Afro-IP),
• FCC
  commish: Net neutrality shouldn’t extend to illegal acts: (Ars
  Technica),
• MPAA
  to Congress: Filtering is in college’s best interests: (Ars
  Technica),
• Antigua
  says it’s going to start ignoring US copyrights (for real this time): (Techdirt),
• Photographs
  are not derivative works (Part II): (Patry
  Copyright Blog),
• Monetising
  file-sharing: collective licensing good, ISP tax bad: (Electronic
  Frontier Foundation),
• Hollywood’s
  record year shows MPAA’s piracy folly: (Electronic
  Frontier Foundation)

US
Trademarks

• USPTO requires written description
  in application for trade marks containing non-standard characters: (IP
  Spotlight), (IP
  Updates),
• New trade mark description rule to
  take effect 13 May 2008: (Daily
  Dose of IP),
• Trade mark declaration audits for
  fraud remediation: (IP
  Updates)

US
– Companies / Entities

• Apple –
  Apple sued by Mirror Worlds over document streaming patents: (IP Law360), (Ars Technica), (IPBiz),
• Barnes
  & Noble – Illinois federal judge allows infringement case against Barnes
  & Noble and Aeropostale to proceed after denying claims that MedCom USA’s
  patent for prepaid phone and gift card technology is invalid: (IP Law360),
• BrainLAB
  – Although Medtronic’s patent suit was dismisses last year, the company faces a
  request from BrainLAB to pay $6M for legal fees: (IP Law360),
• Cardica –
  Federal judge refuses to dismiss patent interference suit brought by Cardica
  against Integrated Vascular Interventional Technologies over patents covering
  an apparatus for minimally invasive bypass surgeries: (IP Law360),
• Citigroup
  Credit Services – Court dismisses copyright case brought against Citigroup
  Credit Services and its counsel by FM Industries over program used to manage
  debt collection information: (IP Law360),
• Citrix –
  Citrix wins stay in patent dispute with Communique, pending patent
  re-examination: (IP Law360),
• Cook –
  Court rules endovascular grafts manufactured by Cook do not infringe Edwards
  Lifesciences patents: (IP Law360),
• Dime
  Group International – Court stays Dime’s trade mark infringement claims pending
  international arbitration in Russia: Dime
  Group Int’l, Inc v Soyuz-Victan USA, LLC: (Chicago IP Litigation Blog),
• Dell – Dell
  fails to invalidate Mass Engineered Designs’ patent relating to multiscreen
  display units: (IP Law360),
• Dupre –
  Spitzer call girl, Ashley Dupre, threatens news outlets over copyright: (Techdirt), (43(B)log), (Patry Copyright Blog),
• eBay –
  Split decision for eBay refines internet trade mark infringement standards: Purfumebay.com v eBay: (Intellectual Property Law Blog),
• Finjan –
  Finjan awarded $9 million upon finding that Secure Computing Corp willfully
  infringed three web antivirus patents: (IP Law360),
• Guatanamera Cigars – TTAB decides
  GUATANAMERA geographically misdescriptive for cigars: Corporacion Habanos, SA v Guatanamera Cigars Co: (IP
  Updates),
• IBM –
  Harry&David bring patent suit against IBM over WebSphere and Net Commerce
  software: (IPBiz),
• ImagePoint
  – CAFC reverses noninfringement ruling in patent dispute over menu board
  technology: LSI Industries, Inc v
  ImagePoint, Inc: (IP Law360), (Peter Zura’s 271 Patent Blog), (Patent Prospector),
• iParadigms
  (Turnitin) – Court rules that plagiarism detection is fair use in case brought
  by four students over use of archived student works: (43(B)log),
• Medsafe
  Technologies – Medsafe files suit against Becton Dickinson & Co and
  Retractable Technologies for infringement of safety syringe patent: (IP Law360),
• Microsoft
  – Veritas invalidates Microsoft’s data base patent: (Washington State Patent Law Blog),
• Motorola
  – USPTO refuses to register Motorola radio’s chirp as a trade mark: (IP Law360),
• Nortel –
  Remittitur granted from $28 million to $11.82 million in QPSX patent case against
  Nortel: (EDTexweblog.com), (Patent Prospector), (IP Law360),
• Nymex – Supreme
  Court denies petition for writ of certiorari filed by the New York Mercantile
  Exchange, affirming an appellate court’s ruling that Nymex’s settlement prices
  for oil and gas futures cannot be copyrighted: (IP Law360),
• Palm –
  Canadian residents, Howard B Rosen and Robert M Nelson sue Palm for patent
  infringement relating to wireless phone automatic dialing technology: (IP Law360),
• PharmaStem
  Therapeutics – High Court denies writ of certiorari in blood storage patent
  suit brought by PharmaStem against ViaCell: (IP Law360),
• Qualcomm
  – Appellate judge refuses to block lower court’s permanent injunction barring
  Qualcomm from importing and selling chips and devices that allegedly infringe
  three Broadcom patents: (IP Law360),
• RIAA – RIAA
  awarded $23,250, or $750 in statutory damages for each of the 31 songs named in
  the lawsuit, plus $420 in court costs: Atlantic
  v Anderson: (Ars Technica),
• RIAA –
  Tanya Andersen refiles class action against the RIAA alleging racketeering,
  fraud, illegal spying: (Techdirt), (The IP ADR Blog),
• Sony –
  ITC probes Sony in LED patent case: (IP Law360),
• Strom –
  District Court holds breached settlement agreement does not create patent
  jurisdiction in Strom v Strom Closures,
  Inc: (Chicago IP Litigation Blog),
• TiVo –
  Dish Network asks CAFC to reconsider damages award to TiVo for patent
  infringement: (IP Law360), (Patent Prospector),
• Zimmer – Hudson
  Surgical Design sues Zimmer alleging infringement of two patents relating to
  knee replacement implants and surgical techniques: (IP Law360)