March 6, 2009

A trademark conveys the image, personality and the origin of the products to a customer. Through this information, the consumer will make an economic decision to purchase. Thus, trademarks are crucial in developing a company’s...

March 6, 2009

OHIM, the European Office for trade marks and design registration, has announced that it will slash fees by 40%. This price change could take place in a matter of weeks.

At the moment the price of filing for a CTM online is...

March 7, 2009

Having just purchased a pair of UGG boots from a website UGGBOOTSFORALL.COM.AU for my daughter’s birthday, I am surprised to hear they are not the genuine article.

If I had been less busy, I might have delved more deeply before...

March 10, 2009

We recently blogged here about OHIM’s plans to reduce its fees for trade mark applications, and it seems the UK IPO are following suit with a plan to reduce trade mark application fees by 15%. The...

March 16, 2009

The value of a logo has no bearing to the amount your designer charges you.  Nike’s $35 “swoosh” design is one example, and now another example is Twitter’s bird logo.

Twitter reportedly only paid $6 for...

March 17, 2009

One of the more difficult aspects of trademark protection to explain to clients is that a trademark is only territorial in nature and not in fact international. This means that each trademark that is registered in each additional...

March 18, 2009

We often receive enquiries from clients wanting to register their logos.  Few know what registration they want or what protection is available, so it seems worth looking at this question in this blog.

Before explaining what...

March 24, 2009

It was interesting to read this report in Out-law that a quarter of Government’s databases are probably illegal.  This follows a report by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (JRRT) into UK’s public...

March 26, 2009

The EU Registry recently announced a fee reduction from €1,600 for an online application and registration in 3 classes to €900. A draft Regulation is currently being prepared for adoption by the...

March 29, 2009

Generally it is easier for inventors or others who have a patentable invention to find sources of funding than it is to find funding purely for intellectual property protection.  However, that being said there are also grants...

April 3, 2009

We are alarmed by the increasing number of scammers that target trade mark applicants in the UK and the EU.  Clearly some people are misled into paying the fees otherwise the scams would not continue as they do.

The scammers...

April 7, 2009

Whether you want to include just the bare minimum information that the law requires you to display on your website, or appreciate that more extensive information will increase trust in your site, a useful starting point is to know...