The battle between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, the two of the largest companies in the global defence industry, reached a new level at the High Court in Malaysia last year. The argument was over the registration and use of the trade mark Paveway, a type of laser-guided bomb made by Raytheon in Malaysia. Both companies […]
Philippines Battle Between Pfizer And Unilab Continues
One of the world's pharmaceutical giants, Pfizer, owns a patent for the anti-cholesterol drug "Atorvastatin Calcium" under Warner Lambert, which is valid and is in force until September 2012 in the Philippines. Pfizer marketed this drug under the brand Lipitor. The largest Philippine drug-maker, United Laboratories Inc. (Unilab), started selling in 2009 the generic version […]
Patent Revocation in Singapore
In recent years, there has been an increase in patent litigation in Singapore contributed by the speed and quality of decisions, relatively low costs and transparency in the legal system. Since the enactment of the Singapore Patents Act in 1995, patent law and enforcement has grown in strength. It has to be noted that since […]
Malaysia - The Law Of Passing Off Examined In Court
The Plaintiff's case The Plaintiff's brought an action against the Defendants for passing off, conspiracy to pass of, conspiracy to injure the trade of the Plaintiffs, malicious falsehood and slander of goods and infringement of trade mark under the Trade Mark Act 1976. The Plaintiff's product known as "Lady Gold" was registered under the Control […]
India - High Court Compares Essential Features
Under the Indian Patent Act a patent is available on an invention that is new, useful and is not obvious to the person skilled in the art. The invention, a product or a process, must satisfy the test of constituting an inventive step, which means the improvement must produce a new result or a new […]
Malaysia - High Court Brokers Bunfight
We know that the most important purpose of a trade mark is to allow a customer to distinguish this product, with minimal private and social costs, from similar goods made by other manufacturers. But what happens when the original manufacturer has entered into agreements giving consent to another manufacturer to make those same goods on […]
India - Bayer’s Patent Linkage Claim Rejected
Bayer Corporation’s petition to the High Court of Delhi to enforce patent linkage in India was dismissed with costs fixed at a deterrent amount. The respondents to the petition included the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), and generic drug maker CIPLA. CIPLA had applied to the DCGI for the marketing license of its drug, […]
Malaysia - Megnaway Enterprise Sdn Bhd v Soon Lian Hoc
The Plaintiff's claim was base on the Defendant's infringement of their Copyright and unlawful interference with the Plaintiff's trade or business. Brief Facts Here the Plaintiff was a private limited company carrying on the business of manufacturing and distributing anti car theft system made especially for local made cars under trademark 'THEF-PRO', since 1991. Meanwhile […]
Singapore - Another Patent Falls Short on Novelty and Inventive Step
In the second such patent infringement suit this year, the Singapore High Court has decided in favor of the defendants by revoking the plaintiff's Singapore patent on the grounds of lacking novelty and inventive step. Interestingly, the patent in question, like the previous one, also relates to the electronics manufacturing industry. Background The plaintiff, ASM […]
IPAB Rules On Pharmaceutical Trade Marks
The use of a trade mark that is identical or deceptively similar to another’s trade mark leads to economic loss to the original proprietor as well as dilution of the mark and passing off. If the use of deceptively similar mark is in respect of pharmaceutical products falling in the same description, concerns of public […]