Marco Connor, Head of Patent Practice with Kirkpatrick and Lin Yasong, attorney at law, registered to the China bar, wrote together the article "How to get patent protection in Europe ?".  This article was recently published with JPTOS and describes all changes occurred in 2008 in the IP field.  You will find in this article all you need to know and does not dare to ask about the EPC 2000, the London Protocol and the new taxes raised by EPO. 

The MARQUES 22nd Annual conference was held this year in Noodwijk aan Zee (Netherlands) with an attracting program defined as "BRAND OUT OF THE BOX" or "A complete business guide to trade marks".

Valérie CORBIAU, who represented Kirkpatrick, was very pleased to meet the several IP inhouse and outside counsels to share their experience. The contributions of the speakers were very interesting going through the different aspects of a trademark life. The different speakers stressed out the importance of IP as valuation asset and how to value it, the importance of an active portfolio management, the issue of private labels (versus so called A-Brand), the different options possible between the inside or external handling of a portfolio with very concrete speeches from representatives of well known owners of trademrk portfolios such as Nestle, Unilever, Henkel and others. To summarize: A very interesting session ! ... [+]

The 41st AIPPI Congress took place in Boston, USA, from September 6 till 11, 2008.  Dominique Kaesmacher, President of the AIPPI Belgian Branch and Chief IP Attorney with Kirkpatrick represented our firm at Boston.  This year, the four following topics were examined during the Congress: The impact of public health issues on exclusive patent rights (Q 202), Damages for infringement, counterfeiting and piracy of trademarks (Q 203), Liability for contributory infringement of IPRs (Q 204) and Exhaustion of IPRs in cases of recycling or repair of goods (Q 205). As usual, each topic was primarily examined by national working groups, which issued national reports which were sent to the international working committees.  The final resolutions adopted by the general meeting on the basis of the work done by the several working committees will be available on www.aippi.org.  Dominique Kaesmacher actively took part to Q 205 at both national and international levels.

• January 2000: The Hague System includes 28 contracting parties
• January 2008: Accession of the European Community (EC)
• September 2008: Accession of the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI)

 

MAIN FEATURES OF THE INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
The Hague System of international registrations of industrial designs (known as the “Hague System”) offers businesses a simple, affordable and efficient way for obtaining and maintaining industrial designs in the countries or regions that are party to  the Hague Agreement.

The Hague System is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) located in Geneva (Switzerland). It provides for the possibility to protect an industrial design in one or in several member countries by simply filing one application with WIPO, in one language (English or French), and with one set of fees in one currency (Swiss Francs). The resulting international registration will produce the same effects in each of the designated countries as if the design had been registered separately in each country.

The Hague System also simplifies greatly the subsequent management of the industrial design, since it is possible to record later changes or to renew the registration through a single procedural step with WIPO.

EC AND OAPI ACCESSIONS TO THE HAGUE SYSTEM
The Hague System is an exclusive system, i.e. only open to (currently) 51 contracting parties (list). However, with the accessions of the EC since January 1, 2008 and the OAPI since September 16, 2008 to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement, the geographical scope of this system was broadened significantly, both in terms of entitlement and designations.

Entitlement: With the EC and OAPI accessions to the Geneva Act, any natural or legal person having a connection (nationality, domicile, establishment or habitual residence) with any EC or OAPI member state, even if that member state is not in itself a contracting party to the Hague System (e.g. United Kingdom, Poland, Sweden or Congo), is now entitled to apply for international registration of industrial designs via the Hague System.

Designations: With the EC and OAPI accessions to the Geneva Act, any natural or legal person having a connection with any EC or OAPI member state can now apply for protection in a state that is party to the Geneva Act, even if the EC or OAPI member state is not in itself a party to the Geneva Act (e.g. Belgium or Germany). Inversely, any natural or legal person having a connection with a state that is party to the Geneva Act can obtain protection in the EC or the OAPI as a whole. If there is no refusal, such an international registration will have effect in all member states of the EC and/or the OAPI just as if the applicant had applied there directly.

 

KIRKPATRICK'S RECOMMENDATIONS
According to the « United Nations’ Creative Economy Report 2008 » the creative industries are among the most dynamic emerging sectors in world trade. Trade in creative goods and services is said to have increased at an average annual rate of 8.7 per cent over the period 2000-2005. According to the Report, this positive trend occurred in all regions and groups of countries and is expected to continue into the next decade.

We at Kirkpatrick, intellectual property firm, wish to remind you of the importance of protecting your creative work through design registrations. In the fight against counterfeit, registered designs indeed are a very useful tool whether or not combined with other intellectual property rights. With the accessions of the EC and the OAPI, the use of the Hague System to protect your designs has become even more interesting in terms of geographical scope.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information. We shall be pleased to assist you with the protection of your creations. We protect. You grow.

Contact: Patricia VAN OVERBEKE Trademark & Design Attorney p.vanoverbeke@kirkpatrick.eu Antonietta ARCURI Head of Trademark & Design Practice a.arcuri@kirkpatrick.eu

Kirkpatrick was represented by Marie-Paule Vandeberg at the UNION congress which took place in Porto in May 2008. Marie-Paule participated with great interest in the working and social program. The various workshops organised were a great opportunity for the 120 participants to exchange ideas and experience. The debated themes were, for patent matter: contributory infringement, prior user’s right, supplementary protection certificate, practice in China. TM and design workshops were also held in parallel, in particular about enforcement and prior art. The next congress has been announced for 2011 in Belgium. ... [+]

Kirkpatrick again attended the ECTA annual conference, which was this year held in Killarney, Ireland. Kris Keymolen, who represented Kirkpatrick, came back very enthusiastic about the high quality of the sessions which concerned a large variety of subjects such as global brands, counterfeiting, internet issues, the use of surveys in trademark cases, distinctiveness and other interesting matters. As always, the ECTA conference is also a great opportunity to meet our colleagues and share our experience.

We have the pleasure to announce that KIRKPATRICK was selected to write the Belgian chapter of Anti-counterfeiting 2008 – A Global Guide published by the World Trademark Review, May 2008. This chapter was co-written by Dominique Kaesmacher, Chief IP Attorney, and Jean-Yves Dumoulin, Trademark & Design Attorney. Ms Kaesmacher is a member of the “Club”, an alliance that actively fights counterfeiting with other Belgian Law firms and Private companies. Jean-Yves Dumoulin is in charge of “GEO-CUSTOMS” at Kirkpatrick. GEO-CUSTOMS is a unit protecting the IP rights of our clients against piracy and counterfeiting. Should you wish to have an exemplary of this issue of the World Trademark Review, please let us know at b.dedeurwaerder@kirkpatrick.eu

As every year, Kirkpatrick was present at the INTA annual meeting. Antonietta ARCURI, Dominique KAESMACHER and Catherine VANDECANDELAERE seized the opportunity that the meeting took place in Europe (Berlin) to focus on Kirkpatrick’s European professional relationships and to organize some special moments with some foreign associates and clients. This INTA session was an additional occasion to share on different faces of our business as, amongst other, the promising Chinese market

Kirkpatrick, AWEX, the Belgian and Chinese Chamber of Commerce, De Wolf & Partners and the Chinese Business Club organized on May 15 in Louvain-la-Neuve a conference “Droits Intellectuels et stratégies de partenariat en Chine”. Dominique Kaesmacher, Chief IP Attorney at Kirkpatrick gave a lecture about the Intellectual Property protection seen by European people.

Kirkpatrick sent an IP Alert to its clients in May 2008.  You can download it on our website (KP Academy/Newsletters)

Click here  to download

The Belgian Branch of the AIPPI (International Association for the protection of Intellectual Property) designated Dominique Kaesmacher, Chief IP Attorney at Kirkpatrick, as its new President last March 20, 2008. Dominique accepted to succeed to Fernand De Visscher in this role. Let’s wish her success for this new professional challenge.

Kirkpatrick was one of the 250 exhibitors welcoming, as each year, the 12.000 visitors at Entreprendre-Ondernemen in Tours & Taxis, Brussels.   Our Patent and Trademarks teams answered numerous questions and explained our services to their guests.  Dominique Kaesmacher and Kris Keymolen gave a bilingual lecture to their Belgian visitors explaining them the consequences of the Intellectual Property Management on the enterprise.