IPTango

Thursday, 18 September 2014

México – El Gobierno Federal debe cesar en el uso de la marca REPUVE

Gilberto Macias (@gmaciasb) September 18, 2014 No comments:

Cero y van dos serios problemas que las autoridades mexicanas han tenido para bautizar al registro público donde la propiedad de automóviles sea regulada. Lo conseguirán a la tercera?

Si primero se tuvo que cambiar el nombre de RENAVE por causas realmente bochornosas, ahora toca dejar de usar el nombre REPUVE, aunque por casusas muy diferentes, y buscar uno nuevo.

Como nos comentan nuestros amigos de Alhen, el IMPI ha ordenado que el Gobierno debe identificar a su registro con otro nombre, puesto que la denominación REPUVE está registrada, desde el 2007, como marca a nombre de la empresa Socom, S.A. de C.V. para el mismo tipo de productos.

A pesar de los esfuerzos por anular la marca de Socom, el IMPI rechazó por completo las alegaciones vertidas por el Gobierno, incluyendo el supuesto aprovechamiento desleal obtenido por Socom por la difusión del registro.

No obstante dicha negativa, según informa Rafael Giménez el Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública continúa usando la marca como si este órgano no pudiera ser demandado por el legítimo titular por una infracción. De hecho, la autoridad ostenta 12 registros adicionales, aunque ninguno de ellos tiene que ver con el registro de automóviles, si no con servicios completamente diferentes, como construcción de inmuebles, educación, servicios médicos y veterinarios, etc. Registros que quizá se obtuvieron para intentar salvarse de la infracción.

Más información sobre este interesante asunto puede obtenerse aquí y aquí.

IP for innovation and health: a forthcoming event

Jeremy September 17, 2014 No comments:

IP Tango learns that on 16 and 17 October 2014, the Association of Intellectual Property is holding its 5th Latin American Seminar, "The Value of IP for Innovation and Health", with the the participation of academics, officials, experts and judges from many Latin American countries.

The venue chosen for this year's event is the Universidad del Externado, Bogota, Colombia, whose Departamento de la Propiedad Intelectual has a Boletín virtual for which the relevant website is here.

Anyone interested in attending this event is advised to contact the coordinator, Felix Rozanski, by email at propintel@uexternado.edu.co for further information.

La batalla por la Propiedad Industrial de las arpas paraguayas

Rodrigo Ramirez Herrera @ramahr September 15, 2014 No comments:

En el años 2006 el comerciante de arpas, Salomón Sanabria, registró diseños y ornamentos utilizados en la construcción de arpas paraguayas, lo que llevó a la Fiscalía a imputar a artesanos de Asunción y Luque, por la supuesta falsificación de sus modelos.

A raíz de este conflicto se requisaron instrumentos en varios locales de ventas y sus propietarios se vieron obligados a dejar de comercializar los populares modelos.

Los luthiers paraguayos rechazaron los argumentos del denunciante y aseguran que sus diseños son "artesanales" y no "modelos industriales" y datan de varias décadas pues proceden de la herencia del acervo familiar de los Sanabria, vale decir, son de dominio público.

El caso se inició en julio de 2006, cuando la Dirección de la Propiedad Industrial otorgó al comerciante de arpas el registro de dibujo industrial Nº 1754 (ornamentación para instrumento musical). En diciembre de 2006, Sanabria denunció la supuesta falsificación de su diseño, declarando a la Fiscalía que él mismo realizó los diseños en 2001. Ante este hecho, la Central de Artesanos de Luque reclamó al Instituto Paraguayo de Artesanía (IPA) la revocación del registro. En abril de 2007, la Fiscalía imputó a artesanos en base a la denuncia de Sanabria y en junio de 2007 Propiedad Industrial revocó el registro y se sobreseyó a los imputados, aunque en diciembre de 2013 se revocó la resolución que dejaba sin efecto el original registro de Sanabria.

A partir de ese pronunciamiento, en enero de 2014 Salomón Sanabria volvió a denunciar a los artesanos alegando falsificación de su "modelo industrial" cuyo registro fue otorgado en diciembre de 2013. En base a dicho registro en abril pasado la Fiscalía realizó allanamientos en los locales de varios artesanos imputados.

Fuente: Última hora / Noticias de Paraguay /

New title from Argentina

Jeremy September 12, 2014 2 comments:

From Felix Rozanski comes the following news:

"We are pleased to inform you that elDIAL.com, along with the ASDIN Intellectual Rights Association, has published in print and in digital format (e-book) a new volume Collection: 2014 Intellectual Property (217 pages).

Intellectual property continues to gain increasing importance in countries like those of Latin America, which have begun to realize the importance of promoting scientific and technological research, cultural industries and productive innovation. The Collection is the best way to publicize the work of the scientific and technological researchers and scholars of Latin American intellectual property law and notes both the opportunities to promote social and economic development of the region as the major challenges facing to meet this objective.

The topics covered:

* Breakthrough against pharmaceutical innovation (Ignacio Martín Sánchez Bensadon Echagiie)
* Climate Change: Challenge for PI (Diego A. Domma)
* Force of the treaty WTO / TRIPS in Latin America: Case of the Dominican Republic (Mary Fernandez, Miguelina and Meris Francisco Figueroa)
* Patent Injunctions (Carlos O. Mitelman)
* Scientific Data Protection (Daniel R. Zuccherino)
* Economic Analysis of Patent Institute (Carlos Lanardonne)
* Results of the Survey on Intellectual Property, SAFE, Soc. Experimental Pharmacology (Florence Gallardo, Paula Schaiquevich, Damasia Becú and Eduardo Gallardo)".

JIPLP welcomes IP law and practice articles from Latin America

Jeremy September 12, 2014 No comments:

"Search engine liability arising from third parties infringing content: a path to strict liability?" is a case note by Marco Rizzo Jurado (Allende & Brea) on PAK v Yahoo Argentina SRL and Google Inc, Civil Court of Appeal, Division ‘J’, Argentina, City of Buenos Aires, 31 August 2012. This article has just been published in the September 2014 issue of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP). According to its abstract

The Civil Court of Appeal, Division ‘J’ of the City of Buenos Aires reversed the first instance court decision and ordered Google and Yahoo! to pay amounts of AR$75 000 and AR$15 000, respectively, plus interest after finding the defendants liable for moral damage caused to a famous Argentinian actress by having her name and image associated with web-pages containing sexual, erotic and pornographic content. This content appeared listed in Google and Yahoo! search results when her name was entered in the search bar. They also ordered the defendants to eliminate the actress's name and image from the search results. The Civil Court of Appeal considered that search engine ‘spiders’ and their activity are ‘risky’ themselves and, therefore that the regime of strict liability for the resulting damages should be applicable. The defendants filed an extraordinary appeal which has been recently rejected.

JIPLP, which is edited by this blogger and published by Oxford University Press, is always willing to consider articles and case notes on law and practice from Latin America. If you are interested in submitting one for consideration, please contact me, Jeremy, at jjip@btinternet.com

Panama: damages for trade mark opposition made in bad faith

Jeremy September 11, 2014 1 comment:

In June 2014 the Civil Chamber of Panama's Supreme Court of Justice, in a majority decision, ordered Bridgestone Corporation and Bridgestone Licensing Services Inc to pay Muresa and Tire Group of Factories Ltd Inc damages of $5 million plus $431,000 in costs and court expenses following a finding that the filing by Bridgestone of a trade mark opposition was made in bad faith, leading to the cessation of the commercialisation of products covered by the RIVERSTONE trade mark.

The decision was supported by the filing of evidence to the effect that Muresa had suffered commercial damage as it had to use other marks, including marks of inferior quality, in order to supply market demand.

This blogger is not familiar with any other instances of damages being filed for wrongful opposition and wonders if readers can enlighten him: is this something that extends beyond Panama?

Source: "Bridgestone ordered to pay $5 million in damages in RIVERSTONE case", by Marissa Lasso De La Vega (Alfaro Ferrer & Ramirez, Panama), published in the World Trademark Review.

Dominican Republic border measures bite fake crocodiles

Jeremy September 09, 2014 No comments:

The customs authorities of the Dominican Republic are reported to have recently destroyed 45,986 counterfeit articles bearing the LOUIS VUITTON, CHANEL and LACOSTE trade marks, all of which were apparently intended for the Dominican market. While this news is recent, the seizures aren't: it seems that the articles were actually seized over a period of three years through customs surveillance.

While the Dominican authorities did not initially enforce obligations under the TRIPS Agreement or the local Industrial Property Law, the enforcement of border measures was kick-started following implementation of the CAFTA-DR (or DR-CAFTA, as it is understandably known locally, this being the Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement with the Dominican Republic), signed in 2004.

Source: "Dominican Customs destroys almost 50,000 counterfeit articles", by Jaime R Angeles (Angeles & Lugo Lovatón, Santo Domingo), published in World Trademark Review.

INDECOPI: the watchdog!

Patricia Covarrubia September 08, 2014 No comments:

Once again this year (previously reported here) the Peruvian National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) has reaffirmed that “ illegal reproduction or sale of any domestic or foreign production, could be fined up to 180 tax units (ITU).”

Iglesia Cristiana protagonista de filme “Perro Guardián”

INDECOPI’s statement came after the premiere of a national film called 'Perro Guardián' (Watchdog) which has been selected for the International Film Festival in Montreal 2014. The Peruvian Institution discourages the population to be part of illegal products which demoralizes creators and producers - it also hurts the economy. It asked the population to only “access legal and original products and services, refusing piracy in all its forms”.

Several times INDECOPI, through the Directorate of Copyright (DDA), has coordinated actions and campaigns seeking to combat piracy and so enforcing copyright. INDECOPI is working in this with the Commission to Combat Customs Crimes and Piracy (CLCDAP), the Prosecutor's Office and the National Police of Peru. INDECOPI reports that this type of campaigns does “have good results. For example, the movie ‘Viejos Amigos’, released a few weeks ago, sets record attendance in theatres”.

INTA, Colombia, speak the same language on IP

Jeremy September 03, 2014 No comments:

The International Trademark Association's latest INTA Bulletin trumpets excitedly that, in a continuing effort to strengthen relationships with associations and IP offices throughout the world, INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Colombia's Superintendent of the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC), Dr Jose Luis Londoño.

In a joint press release, SIC and INTA said that the MOU would increase cooperation between the two organizations and facilitate work to improve trade mark protection for Colombian and international brand owners.

More details of the MOU, and about the latest adventures of the INTA in Latin America, can be obtained from the above link.

Tasas ISA/IPEA del INAPI de Chile

Rodrigo Ramirez Herrera @ramahr September 01, 2014 No comments:

Como parte del proceso de implementación que está llevando a cabo el Instituto Nacional de Propiedad Industrial de Chile (INAPI) para funcionar como Autoridad de Búsqueda Internacional y Examen Preliminar Internacional (ISA/IPEA) del Tratado de Cooperación en Materia de Patentes (PCT), a partir del 22 de octubre de este año, informó a los usuarios las tasas que se cobrarán en su labor de Autoridad Internacional PCT, tanto para nacionales como del resto de los países de Latinoamérica y del Caribe.

Mediante Resolución Exenta N°240 de INAPI de fecha 7 de julio de 2014, publicada en el Diario Oficial el 12 de julio, se cumplió con el trámite legal correspondiente fijándose las tasas en Dólares de EE.UU. de Norteamérica (USD) para sus actividades como ISA/IPEA del PCT.

La tasa de búsqueda internacional tendrá un costo general de USD 2.000, con tasa reducida de USD 400 aplicable tanto a los solicitantes chilenos como a los del resto de los países de la región que cumplan los requisitos establecidos.

La tasa de examen preliminar internacional será de USD 1.500, con tasa reducida de 400 USD, aplicable tanto a los solicitantes nacionales como del resto de los países de la región.

Las universidades tendrán una tasa especial tanto de búsqueda como de examen preliminar internacional de USD 300, para lo cual bastará que acrediten tal condición mediante una declaración hecha por su representante legal.

Con estas tasas el INAPI pretende que los solicitantes puedan reducir significativamente sus costos para presentar solicitudes internacionales PCT y a la vez, servir de incentivo para el uso del sistema en América Latina, y de esta forma contribuir con la iniciativa de convertir a Chile en un polo regional de emprendimiento e innovación.

Fuente: Resolución del INAPI

Some IPTango moves

* Listed as one of the "Best blogs on Intellectual and Industrial Property Law". The University of Alicante Intellectual Property & Information Technology Project (UAIPIT).

* One of the only two Latin American blog listed in the "Top 100 Intellectual Property Blogs". Feedspot, as of May 2021.

* Listed as one of the "Top 15 Blogs For An Intellectual Property (IP) Enthusiasts". Buzzfeed.com, January 2017.

* Listed as one of the "World's Best IP Blogs". BananaIP.com, December 2015.

* IPTango founder Professor Jeremy Phillips was listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Listed as one of the "Influential intellectual property blawgs". A Dictionary of Intellectual Property Law, Peter Groves, 2011.

* Listed as one of the "Communities of Blawgers". Los blogs jurídicos y la web 2.0. para la difusión y la enseñanza del derecho, Gonzalo Ramírez Cleves, 2010.