Category Trademarks/Geographical Indications/Domains

Australia Accepts Indonesia WTO Dispute On Tobacco Packaging; Calls For Five Disputes To Be Joined

Australia yesterday took the unusual move of agreeing to the first request by Indonesia to establish a World Trade Organization dispute panel against it. The ready acceptance of the panel request was an attempt by Australia to bring the some or all of the five separate cases against its tobacco plain packaging law together for resource reasons and to protect the integrity of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, it said in a statement to the Dispute Settlement Body.

UN Praises US Pullback Of Internet Control

The United Nations Secretary General and head of the UN International Telecommunication Union earlier this week applauded an announcement by the United States government that it plans to relinquish its remaining control over the internet domain name system.

WIPO Debate: Can – Or Should – Governments Own Their Country Names?

This week, Jamaica tabled a proposal at the World Intellectual Property Organization for a non-binding instrument that would provide a guideline on the protection of country names against misleading trademarks for intellectual property offices and trademark practitioners. The proposal was received with interest by some member states while others, like the United States and South Africa, raised strong concerns.

New Document On Technical Assistance, But WIPO Design Treaty Still In Trouble

World Intellectual Property Organization delegates are trying to find a way out of a dividing line on how to address technical assistance in a potential new treaty on industrial designs. A new non-paper by the chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical indications (SCT) was released this morning. At stake is the committee's recommendation on the convening of a high level meeting to agree on the treaty.

WIPO Trademark Committee Opens With Firm Positions On Design Treaty

At the outset of this week’s World Intellectual Property Organization trademark committee meeting, several member states cited a pressing need to move forward in preparing recommendations for a treaty on industrial designs. Others maintained firm positions on the unresolved issue of keeping a provision on technical assistance to developing countries as part of the treaty text.