Showing posts with label intellectual property (ip). Show all posts
Showing posts with label intellectual property (ip). Show all posts

Tuesday, 14 July 2020

From Idea to Trademark Registration - How can you come up with a Brand Name?


Trademark Registration

If you have a new product, you undoubtedly need a new name. However, this statement is not as straightforward as it appears if you want an effective way of coming up with a brilliant brand name for your business. It may be a result of a reactive approach, wherein you wait until the product is almost ready to get launched before working hard on the same; however, the best practice always lies in being proactive. If you start working on the brand name before the product is realized, you will be able to save a lot of time and achieve the best possible outcome. To be specific, you need to involve with your product teams right from the beginning and ensure that all the legal and marketing functions are performed well.
With a new brand, it is always highly advisable to choose multiple potential names, that too, at the beginning of the process itself. The names should be selected based on a few criteria, including what the brand is for, which jurisdictions it needs to operate in, and how the brand name intends to engage the customers. It is a matter of fact that yes – the different parts of a business will most probably have different priorities for a brand name, and managing all the competing desires is a part of the overall process.
After shortlisting the brand names, you need to undertake multiple checks, which are as follows:
1.     You need to perform a Trademark Search, which can either be done in-house or with the help of an Intellectual Property (IP) It is imperative to check whether the names you want are available or not and whether they can be protected in the jurisdictions you are aiming for in your overall strategy.
2.     It is essential to think about all the countries and regions where you wish to use the brand name and also check for meanings in their local languages. In the past, several companies and organizations have made a lot of errors by launching brands with unintended and offensive meanings in other languages.
3.     In some industries like the pharmaceuticals, there may be regulatory constraints corresponding to the way you can name a product, which you must keep in mind.
4.     Without any doubt, there is a dire need to identify all your key markets and then create a filing strategy to protect the brand name.
In some industries, in particular, companies face challenges with brand names, specifically when we talk about name creation. In the fashion industry, for instance, the life span of a brand can be pretty short, and there is indeed no way of knowing how successful a particular brand can become. Consequently, you may require a high volume of brand names while operating in this industry. Another thing to notice in the fashion industry is that the companies need to develop the brands very quickly as they have to launch new ones every season. The same can put a lot of stress on a fashion company as the volume of search required in this process becomes high. Nevertheless, with the help of correct resources and a robust strategy, the companies can achieve success in this aspect as well.
If you can navigate well all the potential difficulties of coming up with a brand name, then it becomes a pretty straightforward process. By pooling ideas from the relevant stakeholders before the launch, you will get a lot of time and options for creating an efficient Trademark Registration strategy. However, there are a few pitfalls as well, which you need to be aware of, especially if you operate in a highly competitive environment. It is imperative not to fall into the registration gap, where you own protection in some jurisdictions and not in others. Hence, it is always worth coordinating all your filing efforts to make sure that you file in all your key jurisdictions at the same time. For doing the same, you need to work with the local agents or hire an external partner who will manage the process on your behalf.
Coming up with a new brand name can, at times, seem to be daunting, specifically; if we consider the fact that the brand is the root of a product’s value. But, with the help of the right approach, the process can always be productive and stress-free.


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Thursday, 18 June 2020

Digimedia Tech LLC Sues Nikon Alleging Patent Infringement


Patent Infringement

Digimedia Tech LLC has quite recently filed a Patent Infringement lawsuit against Nikon Americas Inc. and Nikon Inc. by alleging that they have appropriated three of the company’s patents concerning digital camera technology. The patent infringement lawsuit is filed in the Eastern District of New York before Nicholas G. Garaufis (judge). Digimedia Tech is represented by Kent & Risley (a specialty litigation firm dealing with Intellectual Property (IP) and complicated civil cases).

The patents specified in the lawsuit filed are as follows:
  • US Patent No. 6,914,635 (the ‘635 patent), titled – Microminiature Zoom System for Digital Camera
  • US Patent Nos. 6,545,706 (the ‘706 patent) and 7,715,476 (the ‘476 patent), both titled – System, Method, and Article of Manufacture for Tracking a Head of a Camera-Generated Image of a Person
As per the patent infringement lawsuit filed, the claims of the US Patent No. 6,914,635 (the ‘635 patent) are directed towards the technical solutions for the technical problem corresponding to providing autofocus, zoom, and several other features in the exceedingly compact digital cameras. Another feature claimed by the said patent is image stabilization. The claims of the US Patent Nos. 6,545,706 (the ‘706 patent) and 7,715,476 (the ‘476 patent) are directed towards the technical solutions for the technical problem corresponding to identifying a head in an image.
According to Digimedia Tech, Nikon’s Coolpix P900RM and A1000 digital cameras have infringed upon the patents mentioned above. Among multiple other things and aspects, the A1000 camera has allegedly appropriated the US Patent No. 6,914,635 (the ‘635 patent) by making use of a similar Micro-Electromechanical System (MEMS) support mechanism for offering minimum two positions of movement to a supporting element. Nikon’s Coolpix P900RM has allegedly infringed upon the US Patent Nos. 6,545,706 (the ‘706 patent) and 7,715,476 (the ‘476 patent) as it features a system to process the images for identifying a head portion of a subject in them and a computer program for tracking the head portion of a person in video images.
As a consequence of Nikon’s alleged patent infringement, Digimedia Tech is now looking forward to seeking an award for damages, which according to the company, cannot be less than a reasonable royalty.


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Saturday, 9 May 2020

Singaporean Daren Tang Becomes the New Director-General at WIPO


world intellectual property organization (wipo)

Mr. Daren Tang from Singapore has now officially become the Director-General at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Mr. Tang, at present, is the Chief Executive at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). He will now helm WIPO, which is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN) for a term of six years starting from 1st October 2020.
It is the first time in history when a person from Singapore is going to lead a UN agency. Moreover, Mr. Tang is now the first Director-General at WIPO from Asia.
The confirmation for the post of the Director-General comes after Mr. Tang had officially won the nomination for the position in Geneva by beating five other candidates.
In their joint release, the Ministry of Law and IPOS stated that with this new appointment, Mr. Tang shall now relinquish his role as the Chief Executive at the IPOS. The two bodies further said that during his time at the IPOS, Mr. Tang successfully and strategically drove the transformation of the statutory board from an IP regulator and registry to an innovative and creative agency for building the future economy of Singapore.
Dr. Stanley Lai, the Chairman of the IPOS board, and Edwin Tong, the Senior Minister of State for Law, congratulated Mr. Tang on becoming the first Singaporean to lead a UN agency as the Director-General at WIPO. They also said that it is indeed a momentous occasion for Singapore.
Mr. Tang, in his acceptance speech, talked about the global challenges faced by people in the present era, which include the deeper forces of parochialism and unilateralism. He urged the member states to respond to the same by working closely together through a mutual and global effort. He outlined his plans for WIPO by expressing the need to build a balanced, inclusive, forward-looking, and vibrant global ecosystem for Intellectual Property (IP), while paying due attention to the countries that require more assistance and guidance. He further said that there is a dire need to work well with the IP offices all around the world for supporting stakeholders, startups, enterprises, creators, and artists within countries. According to Mr. Tang, WIPO must look forward to expanding the global perspective of IP beyond the technical aspects and become a driver of economic growth, a supporter of entrepreneurs, and a promoter of social vibrancy. He also noted that WIPO should leverage its role as a professional, neutral, and global agency so that the IP offices can conveniently come up to discuss their challenges and share the best practices. He mentioned some other priorities as well for making better operational decisions at WIPO and improving the overall international registration system for Intellectual Property Protection.
In the end, he thanked the Government of Singapore, the chair of WIPO’s assembly, the chair of the coordination committee, and all the member states for their immense support, trust, and loyalty. For view source: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/blog/singaporean-daren-tang-becomes-the-new-director-general-at-wipo/

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Thursday, 23 April 2020

Commvault Sues Cohesity And Rubrik Alleging Patent Infringement


Patent Infringement

Commvault (a publicly-traded data management and data protection software company headquartered in New York) has quite recently filed Patent Infringement lawsuits against Rubrik (a California-based cloud data management company) and Cohesity (a privately held IT company headquartered in San Jose, California) in federal court in Delaware. Commvault has stated that the companies have altogether infringed upon its seven patents, which correspond to a plethora of widely used data management technologies such as data deduplication, cloud, security, snapshots, virtualization, and search. To be specific, Commvault has claimed that both Cohesity and Rubrik have appropriated its patented technologies to short-circuit their development processes and reduce the investment needed, corresponding to building competitive products.
The Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property (IP) Counsel at Commvault, Marcus Muller, has said that the lawsuits hold the responsibility of safeguarding a company’s employees and investors, and also bring about fairness when it comes to competing in the global market. He further mentioned that for over two decades now, Commvault has been successfully delivering solutions to its customers and has become the pioneer in this space. By investing even more than $1 billion in its innovations and inventions, Commvault, at present, owns 900 patents across the globe and over 350 pending patents.
Commvault’s General Counsel, Warren Mondschein, mentioned in a recent statement that Commvault is not at all a litigious company; however when companies like Cohesity and Rubrik commit willful patent infringement, then it is the company’s responsibility to file such lawsuits and take a stand for the protection of its innovations and IP assets.
Lynn Lucas, the Chief Marketing Officer at Cohesity, has said that it is not unusual for legacy vendors to come forward and disrupt the market by filing frivolous lawsuits in an attempt to suppress sales and innovation. Coming to this matter, he stated that Cohesity came to know about the patent infringement lawsuit, not by Commvault’s representatives but through the media. He believes that there is no merit to the lawsuit filed as it is only an attempt to slow down Cohesity’s rapid growth and obstruct its accelerating success.
In an unattributed statement, Rubrik only stated that it doesn’t comment on any pending litigation.
When Commvault was asked why it is filing patent infringement lawsuits against Rubrik and Cohesity corresponding to widely implemented storage software capabilities such as cloud, search, virtualization, to name a few, Muller said the company is not claiming on all the aspects in these technologies and is looking at specific patents. He further declined to speculate about whether the company would file similar lawsuits against other such competitors in the market or not.
Commvault, Cohesity, and Rubrik compete vigorously for data protection and management business in the market. On the one hand, Commvault is a long-established vendor, while Cohesity and Rubrik, on the other hand, are well-funded and rapidly emerging new companies on the block. For view source: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/blog/commvault-sues-cohesity-and-rubrik-alleging-patent-infringement/


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Thursday, 16 April 2020

Unfolding The Hand-In-Hand Relationship Between Blockchain And IP


patent applications

The to-the-point definition of the term blockchain defines it as an anonymous online ledger that efficiently keeps a growing list of records, known as blocks, which are, in turn, linked using cryptography, where every single block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, transaction data, and a timestamp. As a Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, blockchain was invented by an inventor with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2008. The blockchain technology is a concept that is too simple on the one hand and much complex on the other. It is exceedingly diverse in all of its uses. Many experts across the globe believe that the blockchain phenomenon is quite similar to the revolution brought by the Internet and the online world. When it comes to the industrial application of blockchain technology - Finance is undoubtedly one of the leading areas where it is traversing its roots.
The early birds that filed a patent on the blockchain include some of the widely known financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Mastercard International, and Bank of America. In India as well, people have filed a few Patent Applications on the blockchain technology. Other than blockchain, shared economy, smart contracts, file storage, governance, identity management, Internet of Things (IoT), stock trading, data management, e-commerce, healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, luxury and consumer goods, and automotive, are some of the fields in which technology is gaining immense pace and momentum.
It is a matter of fact that yes - Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and the blockchain technology go hand-in-hand. On one side, IPRs protect blockchain, and blockchain, on the other side, can efficiently serve to strengthen the already existing Intellectual Property (IP) regime. Without any doubt, the world, at present, is realizing the enormous potential that blockchain holds, and IPRs are indeed going to play an integral role in coming up with a protected environment for the development of the technology. While taking into account the other side's aspect, we can observe that the security and reliability offered by blockchain can very well strengthen every phase of the lifecycle of the IPRs including creating licensing agreements, resolving disputes over ownership, identifying counterfeit products, or creating an IP register to keep a record for all forms of IPRs.

Initiatives Taken by the Indian Patent Office
Many nations across the globe have started realizing the true potential of blockchain technology, and India is no exception in this case. The Indian Patent Office (IPO) is doing its best to stay at par with the technological advancements. It expects to be able to predict the timelines for users corresponding to the different actions to be taken by the office.  A scientifically-handled workload-based allocation of patent applications to the examiners shall result in making optimal use of human resources available.  Automated checking against all the formal requirements, including attachments, application formats, amongst many others, can speed up the entire process by reducing the manual intervention required.  With reduced manual intervention, there shall also be an impact on the accountability and transparency procedures in an optimistic way. For achieving all the above measures, the IPO is efficiently establishing a legal framework for a blockchain-based IP registry to commercialize ideas and further protect them.

Final Thoughts
The use of blockchain technology for the benefit of the IP industry is indeed significant. However, like other emerging technologies, blockchain technology has a few setbacks as well. At present, such setbacks include the need for massive processing power and restrictions on the number of transactions per hour. The reality is far away from simple when it comes to the ultimate notion of a method for connecting the IP registries around the world via a single distributed ledger. Remember, successful and proactive management of IPRs using blockchain requires having a standardized platform that is adopted internationally. For view source: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/blog/unfolding-the-hand-in-hand-relationship-between-blockchain-and-ip/


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