IP SOLUTIONS BLOG

SERION, our industry-leading online trademark research environment, was recently named to IDG’s InfoWorld 100 list. This award celebrates IT projects that use technology in smart, innovative and creative ways to meet business needs.

We designed SERION with direct input from IP professionals to help make it easier for them to clear trademarks and protect brands. It also was critical that we met current technology needs and workflows of our users. The end result has allowed users to work the way they want to work.

We are honored to be recognized by InfoWorld for our work on SERION.

admin Brand Protection, Trademarks Brand Protection, Trademarks

Pharmaceutical trademark creation and clearance continues to be one of the most difficult and challenging areas of trademark law.  The FDA recently initiated a 2-year Pilot Program under PDUFA IV. The intent of the program is to enable participating pharmaceutical firms to evaluate proposed pharmaceutical marks and submit the data generated from those evaluations to the FDA for review. As such, submitting a trademark to the FDA warrants questions: What supporting data is needed and accepted when proposing a mark?  What issues might arise, and how can they be averted? 

Join Thomson CompuMark for an on-demand pharmaceutical trademark webinar with industry leaders Robert E. Lee, Jr. (Assistant General Patent Counsel, Patents, Trademarks and Copyright for Eli Lilly and Company), James Thomas (Partner with Troutman Sanders LLP), and Maury M. Tepper III (Tepper & Eyster, PLLC) will review the FDA pilot program, outline the requirements for submission and discuss what the changes will mean in clearing new pharmaceutical marks.  They will also present various approaches to trademark development and evaluation in light of the FDA’s views.

Watch the on-demand webinar. 

For more information contact: Victoria Poor, Marketing Communications Manager, Thomson CompuMark

Victoria Poor, Marketing Communications Manager, Thomson CompuMark Thomson Reuters, Trademarks clearance, pharma trademarks, Thomson Reuters

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have partnered to offer a Master of Intellectual Property Law program in Australia, beginning in February 2010. The program is the first of its kind to be offered in the Asia-Pacific region.

From left to right: Andrew O'Brien (Regional Sales Mgr., Thomson Reuters), Philip Noonan (Dir. General, IP Australia), Brian Fitzgerald (Prof. of IP Property & Innovation, QUT), The Hon. Michael Lavarch (Exec. Dean, Faculty of Law, QUT), Kamal Puri (Prof. of IP Law & Program Director, WIPO-QUT Master of IP Law), Steve Thom (Senior Advisor, Office of the Director General, WIPO), Dr. Francis Gurry (Dir. General, WIPO), Jeff Roberts (Asst. Director, International Cooperation, IP Australia).

Thomson Reuters will support the innovative program by providing the university with access to its industry-leading patent research and analysis solution, Thomson Innovation. With the program placing special emphasis on IP matters specific to the Asia-Pacific region, the comprehensive Asia-Pacific patent coverage in Thomson Innovation will be useful for students. The aim is to provide future IP law professionals with the necessary tools to succeed in their courses and become acclimated to products that will help them flourish in their careers.

Thomson Innovation provides full-text English translations of Japanese and Korean patent data, English translations of the titles, abstracts and claims for Chinese data, as well as editorially enhanced, English-language abstracts of patents from Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand , the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.

Read the program brochure.

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Global IP, Innovation, Thomson Reuters asia, Asia-Pacific

Hear David Brown, President of the IP Solutions business of Thomson Reuters, talk about patent analysis of wind, solar and marine alternative energy technologies in a recent interview with Fox Business co-host Dagen McDowell. David highlights findings from the just-published Thomson Reuters World IP Today Report, “Alternative Energy Powers Up,” written by Sue Cullen, Ph.D., IP Consulting Services director, IP Solutions, Thomson Reuters.

Read the full World IP Today Report on Alternative Energy.

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Alternative Energy, Patents Alternative Energy, Patents, Thomson Reuters

Green is popular. While consumers are voicing their great concern for our planet, the business world is looking for strategies to respond appropriately to the eco trend and to create new opportunities. The growing popularity of green products has led to a global increase in the number of trademarks that have been applied for that have terms like ‘green’, ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ in their name.  

Is green the color of brands in the future as well as the color of money for those brands to survive in today’s economic climate? The lack of legal standards or a public consensus about what ‘green’ exactly includes, is one of the big challenges of ‘green marketing’. But there is much more legal specialists and companies must be aware of when launching a ‘green’ brand.

Explore this issue further in an insightful article written by Katrina Burchell, head of the Trade Marks department and Global Category Counsel for Skin products at Unilever. Her research into the importance and the impact of ‘green’ brands offer specialists and legal services guidelines when applying for trademarks, and help them to avoid legal traps. Thomson CompuMark contributed to this study by helping to uncover some remarkable trademark registration trends.

Read the full article.

Ilse Clymans, Marketing Communications Director, Thomson CompuMark Brand Protection, Global IP, Thomson Reuters, Trademarks Global IP, green, green brands, IP strategy, Trademarks

A recent Chronicle of Higher Education posting describes an amusing deception carried out by a researcher in response to receiving numerous “aggressive” unsolicited e-mail messages from an open access publisher which finances its scientific journals by charging authors a publication fee.

Philip M. Davis, a doctoral student in communication at Cornell University, submitted a fake computer-generated research paper from a fake institution. The paper – “a nonsensical five-page report with footnotes and graphical charts” – was accepted after the publisher said it had been peer-reviewed (along with an invoice for $800.)

This made me wonder what happened to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) conducted “Peer-to-Patent” experiment. The answer is that, as of June 15, 2009, the pilot is now closed to new applications, but the pipeline of existing applications will continue to be processed until they have all completed the normal peer review cycle (estimated to be mid-October).

The pilot was set-up to determine if peer review can support, in a cost effective manner, timely, accurate decisions about what inventions merit a U.S. patent.  Certainly in terms of participation the pilot can be judged a success.  A recent update recorded that since Peer-to-Patent launched, there have been 370,011 page views from 67,188 absolute unique visitors in 152 countries/territories with 2,501 registered users of the site and nearly 350 prior art uploads by volunteer experts since the project’s launch.  121 applications have completed or are currently participating in the program.  There are currently 27 patent applications available for review.

The decision to discontinue the program was made by the USPTO on the heels of the recent recognition of Peer-to-Patent by the White House Open Government Initiative.  The USPTO has requested a period of time in which to evaluate the program before making a decision on whether and how to proceed further.

We’d be interested here in your views of the program.

Bob Stembridge, Customer Relations Manager, Thomson Reuters Patent Law, Patent Reform, Patents Patents, Peer-to-Patent, USPTO

In a recent article published in BusinessWeek, Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer provides insight into the factors driving the professionalization in the developing world. Among those factors is the patent boom in China. He explains that as the nation’s economy shifts to one focused on innovation, China is creating a legal system with a greater focus on protecting property rights. Read the full article.

Kevin Bonsor, Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Economy, Global IP, Patents Economy, Global IP, Patents, property rights

With the close of comments from the recent Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Sydney, opinions still vary as to how the launch of new generic top level domains (gTLDs) will affect brand owners. The creation of such customized gTLDs may be exactly what you want. For others however, particularly those who use arbitrary terms as their brand name, this could be more problematic.

Take Apple® for example. Long before it was one of the top 30 most valuable brands in the world or had anything to do with a computer, an “apple” was just a fruit. Arguably scores of apple growers associations throughout the world primarily still think of “apple” as a fruit and would like to own the top level domain “.apple” if they could have it. Fact is, in the U.S. alone, the word “apple” is a registered trademark to several brand owners in 11 different classes, including music, computers, cosmetics, garden tools, horseshoes, tourism services, bags, rubber seals, tobacco, books and toys. So, who should get first bite of the “.apple” top level domain name? Or, should there be an .apple domain at all?

Explore this issue further in the latest issue of Thomson CompuMark’s Client Times Online, with an insightful article written by Foley & Lardner’s Jon Dudas, Jeff Kobulnick and Norm Rich.

If you would like to subscribe to Thomson CompuMark’s Client Times Online e-newsletter, please contact Victoria Poor, Marketing Communications Manager for Thomson CompuMark.

Victoria Poor, Marketing Communications Manager, Thomson CompuMark Brand Protection, Trademarks brands, gTLDs, Trademarks

Trademark professionals worldwide have turned their attention to the power of social media and its effects on trademarks and brands. What was once considered to have a benign impact on brands is now a challenge to overcome for many trademark owners.

The challenge for trademark owners in social media environments is not so much brand confusion, but rather in dealing with and being relevant in open, uncontrolled, and unregulated global communication networks where their relevance, reputations, image and statements are subject to immediate and massive commentary and opinion which can have a direct effect on their revenue and longevity.

The meaning of a trademark/brand as a symbol of reputation takes on a whole new meaning in this environment because the control over reputation can easily shift from the brand owner to the consumer/observer/publisher community. Trademark/brand owners are learning that keeping or harder yet, regaining control requires taking an active role in these communities by fully participating as a community member.

Steven Weinberg, an attorney with Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP, discusses the realities of twitter, Facebook and other social media vehicles that face the trademark industry in the in the July issue of Client Times Online. Read on.

If you would like to subscribe to Thomson CompuMark’s Client Times Online e-newsletter, please contact Victoria Poor, Marketing Communications Manager for Thomson CompuMark.

Victoria Poor, Marketing Communications Manager, Thomson CompuMark Brand Protection, Trademarks Brand Protection, Social Media, Trademarks

David Brown, president of Thomson Reuters IP Solutions, took a few moments out on his recent trip to Beijing to share his thoughts on global growth in the patent and trademark industry. In this podcast, he discusses how law firms are capitalizing on these growth opportunities, especially in China and Korea, to develop new clients and retain market share, and how Thomson Reuters is supporting the patents and trademark business through the new combined offering of Westlaw Patents + Thomson Innovation.

Kevin Bonsor, Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Global IP, Patents, Thomson Reuters, Trademarks Global IP, patent, Thomson Reuters, Trademarks