REDIFF WINS CYBERSQUATTING CASE AGAINST PAKISTANI INDIVIDUAL

Online services major Rediff.com India Ltd has won a cybersquatting dispute against a Pakistani person, who was using an identical domain name and illegally incorporating the Indian firm's trademark. Daniyal Waseem of Quetta in Pakistan was using the domain name 'rediffpk.com'. To this, the Nasdaq-listed Indian firm had contended that the disputed Internet site was identical in part and confusingly similar as a whole to the 'Rediff' trademark, for which it has rights.

USPTO AND THE HUNGARIAN PATENT OFFICE TO PILOT PATENT PROSECUTION HIGHWAY

The Commerce Department’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Hungarian Patent Office have agreed to partner in establishing a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program. PPH agreements are cooperative initiatives that streamline the patent system and promote expeditious, inexpensive and high-quality patent protection throughout the world. The pilot period will begin on July 1, 2010, and continue for a period of one year.

EPO ENLARGED BOARD OF APPEAL FINDS REFERRAL ON PATENTABILITY OF SOFTWARE INADMISSIBLE

The EPO’s Enlarged Board has ruled that there is no conflict in the Office’s case law over the patenting of computer-implemented inventions, in a decision welcomed by patent attorneys. The European Patent Office (EPO) Enlarged Board of Appeal was asked to consider the patentability of computer implemented inventions. The Enlarged Board of Appeal determined that there was no inconsistency in previous board of appeal decisions which would allow the referral. Applicants are therefore unlikely to see any change in procedure at the EPO. The referral decision is available at http://documents.epo.org/projects/babylon/eponet.nsf/0/DC6171F182D8B65AC125772100426656/$File/G3_08_Opinion_12_05_2010_en.pdf

TRADE MARK RULES 2002 AMENDED

The Trade Marks Rules 2002 is amended by Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2010 and notified on 20th May 2010 vide Official Gazetee released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Industry Policy and Promotion, Govt. Of India. The Class 42 of the Fourth Schedule of The Trade Mark Rules, 2002 has been expanded by the amendment to include specific services.

EARLIER TO AMENDMENT:
Class 42:
Providing of food and drink; temporary accommodation; medical, hygienic and beauty care; veterinary and agricultural services, legal services, scientific and industrial research, computer programming; services that cannot be classified in other classes.
NOW AFTER AMENDMENT:
Class 42.
Scientific and technological services and research and design relating thereto; industrial analysis and research services; design and development of computer hardware and software.
Class 43.
Services for providing food and drink; temporary accommodation.
Class 44.
Medical services, veterinary services, hygienic and beauty care for human beings or animals; agriculture, horticulture and forestry services.
Class 45.
Legal services; security services for the protection of property and individuals; personal and social services rendered by others to meet the needs of individuals.
The amendment also inserted a provio to rule 62 in sub-rule (3) as follows: -
"Provided that if the Registrar is satisfied with the claim of the registered proprietor supported by evidence that the certificate of registration issued under sub-rule (1) has not been received by the registered proprietor, he may issue duplicate or copy of the certificate of registration without any further payment of fee :
Provided further that, no such duplicate or copy of certification of registration shall be issued where such request is received after the expiry of the time limit for renewal of registration and restoration of the registered trade mark".
This proviso allows Trademark Registrant to obtain duplicate Registration certificate in case he has not received without any further payments. However the proviso has a limitation that Registrant should apply for such duplicate registration certificate before expiry of the time limit for renewal/ restoration of the mark.

NEW GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION PUBLISHED FOR OPPOSITIONS:

Journal No.35 dated 4th June 2010 has been published by Geographical Indications Registry and invited oppositions for the same. The Journal carries information of the Geographical Indication and its technical and historical details. Anyone interested in opposition shall send a notice of opposition within three months or within such further period not exceeding one month in the aggregate from the date when such Journal was made available to the public. There are totally 206 Products are recognized by Geographical Indications registry and registered them as Geographical Indications. The Journal carries the following four products 1.Nashik Grapes 2. Surat Zari Craft 3. Cheriyal Paintings and 4.PEMBARTHI METAL CRAFT

PATENTS AND TRADE MARKS INFORMATION IN INDIA GOES ONLINE:

The office of the Controller General Patents Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM ) has now made available to the public the Prosecution History, Complete Specification and Examination Reports of published patent application and all details including e-Register in case of granted patents. The Office has already lunched the online status verification system earlier. Now the Office has providing all the documents such as prosecution history, specification, examination reports and register (Status) of patent renewal information online. The details can be viewed through checking the status of patent or logging into IPAIRS website at http://ipindia.nic.in/ipirs1/patentsearch.htm

Also further step to achieve complete transparency in the Trade Marks Registry, Office of the CGPDTM has made available to the public complete details of pending Trade Mark Applications, Registered Trade Marks including the Prosecution History, Examination Report, Copy of the Application, e-Register of Trade Marks, Copy of the Trade Mark Certificate, Opposition details etc. Suggestions for further improvement/refinement from the stakeholder are welcome. The details can be seen by logging on "Trade Mark Status" in our official website https://www.ipindiaonline.gov.in/eregister/eregister.aspx