Archives for: ‘Consumer & retail’
Clarisonic v PuraSonic – the allure of miraculous transformational product claims
The Federal Court of Australia has granted preliminary discovery in L’Oréal Australia Pty Ltd v BrandPoint Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 978 with respect to product claims made in relation to the PuraSonic facial cleansing brush. Immortalised by Justice Beach as “a product marketed to the fairer sex with the allure of its miraculous transformational properties”, the application concerned representations made in …
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Combination marks – the limits of Medion further defined by Arnold J in Jura Origin case
The European Court of Justice’s decision in Medion (Case C-120/04) is one that can provoke vitriol among even the calmest of practitioners. That case involved an infringement action taken against the use of the mark THOMSON LIFE by Thomson, in the face of Medion’s earlier registration for LIFE. The court ruled as follows: “ … where the goods or services …
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Spins a web, anytime, but only pays royalties until the expiry of the patent
It a recent US Supreme Court case involving a patent for a device shooting Spiderman foam ‘webs’ from wrists, Justice Kagan did a (Marvel-ous?) summation of the issue at hand: ‘Patents endow their holders with certain superpowers, but only for a limited time’.
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Everything is awesome for the Lego Minifigure
From children’s toys to video games, via blockbuster movies, the Lego minifigure has to be one of the most iconic toys of recent years. Released in its current form in 1978, over 3.7 billion “minifigs” have been produced. Such is the fame of the small plastic articulated figures, you would struggle to find someone in the developed world between the …
Read MoreATMOsphere – Trade Marks Office Decisions – January to March 2015
ATMOsphere: Our trade mark series of posts summarising what has been happening in the world of Trade Marks Office decisions. Here, we aim to provide a high level summary of those decisions and to provide an interesting and useful snapshot of the previous months of decisions. Better a little late than never, we bring you the summary of decisions from …
Read MoreSelf(ie) made: Artist makes a Princely sum selling other people’s photos
That selfie stick might actually be a wise investment – after all, your next Instagram post could be worth thousands. US artist Richard Prince’s latest exhibition, ‘New Portraits’, is a series of printed screenshots of other people’s Instagram photos. The going price for each piece? A cool US$90,000 (roughly A$115,000). The amount the original Instagram posters will get? $0. Prince …
Read MoreACIP’s Review of the Designs Systems proposes three approaches to reform
In 2012, the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) was tasked by the Government with conducting a review of the operation and effectiveness of the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) in supporting innovation. Late last year, ACIP released its Options Paper on the Designs Act (available online here). The Options Paper proposed three approaches to reform. In summary: The first option …
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5 Seconds of Summer refused trade mark registration
The music production company behind one of the biggest boy bands in the world, 5 Seconds of Summer, has been refused registration of the trade mark ‘5SOS’. Is this due to a lack of up-to-date pop culture knowledge on the part of the Australian Trade Marks Office? You can read the decision here. For those of you asking “who is …
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