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News • IP News This Month
October 19, 2009
Welcome to CIPP's "IP News This Week", your 5-minute report of the latest IP news from around the world. IP News This Week arrives every Monday (most of the time!) and contains a review of all major newspapers and online IP sources. Comments? Send them to: jeff.roberts*at*mcgill.ca
Top 3 Stories
The skinny on Ralph Lauren and copyright: designer makes spurious infringement allegations in failed effort to quell criticism of bizarrely thin model
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World Wrestling outfit threatens Philly wine school with IP suit over “Sommelier Smackdown” class, claims name “likely to create consumer confusion”
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Harmless romp? Disney displeased over Aussie beer maker’s “Ho White” ad featuring cig smoking brunette in bed with 7 dwarves, including Filthy and Randy
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Canada
A Senator is making a fresh attempt to reform the country’s failed legislative scheme to deliver patented drugs to the developing world
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The Post reports on Pfizer et al’s successful efforts to induce provincial governments to buy brand name versions of off-patent drugs
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United States
Tireless public data advocate Carl Malamud has formed a team to create Law.Gov which is intended to be an open source resource for all primary legal materials in the US
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Martin Luther King’s grasping offspring have reached a settlement that will allow them to avoid going to court over how to split copyright royalties from the I Have a Dream speech
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As IP lobbying power continues to shift from pharma to tech firms, Republicans are balking at a Senate bill to create post-grant review mechanisms for patents
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Other states are pushing to undermine Delaware’s corporate friendly laws that allow firms to park IP in holding companies to avoid tax
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Europe
Trademark-conscious Kelloggs has a plan in the UK to imprint its name on individual corn flakes
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The owner of the Sex Pistols is planning a trademark suit against a boutique ice-cream company over its punk rock “God Save the Cream” ad campaign
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A Swedish appeals court ruling has cast in doubt the viability of the country’s new legislation that forces ISP’s to reveal the identity of file sharers
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French publishers seem delighted that the Google Books settlement appears to be floundering in the US courts (La Tribune, 14 Oct)
International
Beirut hosted a regional meeting of industrial property and copyright offices; delegates and WIPO types pledged to improve IP resources in Arabic
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Academic types are abuzz about the soon-to-be published inaugural edition of The WIPO Journal which will offer global IP debate with an independent editorial board
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IP News This Week is written and conceived by Jeff Roberts (www.jeffjohnroberts.com). Any views expressed do not necessarily reflect the diverse opinions of CIPP members