US golf equipment manufacturer Acushnet, which owns the Titleist trade mark in Malaysia, has managed to obtain summary judgment against a local company in the case Acushnet Company v Metro Golf Manufacturing Sdn Bhd [2006] 7 CLJ 557. The proceedings began in 2004 when, following the discovery of documents incriminating the defendant, the enforcement division […]
Singapore Courts Enforce Trade Mark Rights in Healthcare Product Case
Although most trade mark disputes are usually settled at the interlocutory injunction stage, one of the few cases where, despite the grant of an interlocutory injunction, the matter proceeded to trial was recently decided by the High Court in Singapore. The case being OTO Bodycare Pte Ltd v Hiew Keat Foong [2005] SGHC133 concerned the […]
The Current Approach Of The Judiciary Towards Well-Known Marks In Thailand
The situation concerning the protection and enforcement of well-known marks in Thailand can be rather good despite there being no mandatory provisions that clearly spell out the constitution of a well-known mark. The Courts and Examiners use the prevailing case law as precedents or the Ministerial Notifications as a guideline in deciding what amounts to […]
Highlights on Patent and Design Changes in the new Vietnam Intellectual Property Law
Vietnam National Assembly has passed the new Intellectual Property Law, which will officially come into effect on 1 July 2006. This is a significant development as previously, legislation on IP was contained in Part VI of the Civil Code, and did not have its own legislation. Much of the former provisions were not TRIPS-WTO compliant […]
Franchising in Indonesia
Franchising in Indonesia is governed by legislation that only came into place in 1997 by the passing of Government Regulation No. 16/1997, this piece of legislation was then supplemented by the Minister of Industry and Trade Decree No. 259/MPP/Kep/7/1997. In the Government Regulations, franchising has been defined as an agreement where a party (the franchisee) […]
Protection of Well-Known Marks in Indonesia
The Registration System, 1961 Historically, since 1961, trademark protection in Indonesia adopted the "first-use-principle" whereby a trademark is registered to the proprietor based on its first use in the jurisdiction. There was no protection for well-known marks. The situation for well-known mark owners was unsatisfactory as illustrated by an important case that occurred in 1996 […]
Malaysian Courts Apply American Cynamid Principles To Copyright Injunction
An interlocutory injunction is a relief available to a plaintiff to restrain a defendant from continuing to infringe the plaintiff's rights pending the trial of the matter. As the rights of the parties have not been resolved at trial, the courts would have to be careful in exercising its discretion in granting an injunction especially […]
The Honda case – Injunctive Relief in Industrial Design and Three Dimensional Copyright in Malaysia
The High Court in Malaysia has delivered an important decision on the various issues pertaining to copyright and industrial design with special reference to an application for an interlocutory injunction. In Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha v Allied Pacific Motor (M) Sdn Bhd & Anor [2005] 3 MLJ 30, the famous Japanese marque for bikes […]
The Protection Of Kanji Characters In Malaysia – The Yomeishu Saga
Background The proprietors of Kanji character trade marks in Malaysia can take comfort from a decision of the Malaysian Court of Appeal which upheld the decision of the High Court where it was held that the wide usage of the phonetic sound of the combination of the Kanji characters in question among the local Chinese […]
Interlocutory Injunctions in Trade Mark Cases - Is the American Cynamid test still applicable in Malaysia
It is well established in law that an interlocutory injunction is ancillary to a cause of action and therefore it is only a party who has a cause of action who can apply for an interlocutory injunction (Siskina v Distos Compania Naviera SA [1979] AC 210). The primary objective of an interlocutory injunction is to […]