Way more than an everyday interest in IP
In December last year, Justice Emmett of the Federal Court handed down an important decision for originator pharmaceutical companies who seek access to documents evidencing applications to list generic versions of their products on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG), and generic companies who assume such applications are kept confidential.
The Federal Court of Australia recently dismissed an application for an interlocutory injunction made by the sanofi-aventis group against Hospira and Interpharma. This has allowed Hospira and Interpharma to launch generic versions of the oncology drug docetaxel as planned, pending the outcome of a full trial. Justice Jagot’s decision is significant because in recent years most applications for an interlocutory injunction in pharmaceutical and medical device patent cases have been successful. Mallesons represented Hospira in this litigation. You can read more about the case i read more…
Owners of copyright in entertainment content have for some time now been faced with a significant challenge in stamping out infringement by recourse to the courts. It may be difficult to sue more than a small fraction of the number of copyright infringers out there and publicising successful suits to deter other infringers can be difficult. That’s why alternative tactics may be more effective, like requiring internet service providers to terminate the connections of infringers, or scaring them with headline-grabbing damages awards (read more…
You thought that social networking site Twitter, launched in 2006, was an exemplar of internet entrepreneurship, at the forefront of digital innovation, bravely creating entirely new ways for people to interact, communicate and socialise?
Think again.
American country music duo the Bellamy Brothers are reportedly considering suing Britney Spears, arguing that her new song “Hold It Against Me” infringes copyright in their 1979 Tex-Mex hit “If I Said You Have A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me”.
Sometimes intellectual property can get you very hot under the collar.
On Tuesday 25 January 2011, a bill to reform patent law in the US was introduced into Congress with bipartisan support. The reform bill aims to simplify the patent application process, improve patent quality and keep the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) independently funded. It marks the fourth consecutive time the Senate has attempted to implement patent reform.
Most of you have accidentally misspelled a website name and journeyed into a forest of links, pop-up ads and webpages offering (admittedly complementary) pornography and Viagra, and would be fully aware of the existence of cyber squatting/typo squatting.
Copyright law’s reason for existence is to encourage the creation of new artistic, dramatic, literary and other works by granting creators the exclusive right (subject to certain exceptions) to decide those who may use the work. This exclusivity gives creators the opportunity to profit from their creative works, and, so the theory goes, enables society as a whole to benefit from the consequential increase in creative output. However, copyright does impose a cost on copyright users, who are usually forced to pay to access creative works that they would otherwise be able read more…