Now, Why Didn’t I Think of That?

There’s an interesting article in today’s Montreal Gazette, entitled Showdown in glitter gulch, about the raging trade-mark battle between private businesses and the Canadian Northwest Territories government.

Back on January 28, 2004 the Government of the Northwest Territories gave notice that it adopted the term CANADIAN DIAMOND as an “Official Mark”. Official […]

PATSCAN’s Bizarre Patent Calendar for 2006 (pdf format) is now available.

I like the entry for January (i.e. US2004/0216209), because you never know when you’ll need your swimwear to say that your carrying dangerous goods or indicate that your ready to deploy your towing hawser.

This week’s Trade-marks Journal had a few amusing trade-mark applications advertised, including:

FEAR THE BEER - 1,247,805, by Berezan Management (B.C.) Ltd., in relation to alcoholic beverages, including beer. However, all of those that I surveyed indicated that they did not fear the beer, so maybe the mark should include the word DON’T at […]

Earlier this month CIPO announced the launch of the new Canadian Industrial Designs Database.

Information about Canadian industrial design registrations is now publicly available through the web. Well, at least 10,000 of them to start with (i.e. those registered as of June 15, 2002).

More registrations will be added on […]

Via Dennis Crouch’s Patently-O blog, where it was noted that Research in Motion (RIM) has requested that the U.S. Supreme Court hear its appeal from the Federal Circuit’s decision which earlier this year was decided in NTP’s favor.

The appeal involves the question of territoriality of the patent laws. As noted previously, RIM claimed […]

Via Rob Hyndman, who noted that the Globe & Mail today has a good article about how patent litigation in the U.S. seems to be getting a little out of hand in terms of legal costs to fight such a battle. The article even suggests that such litigation may cost up to $50 million […]

Today the CBC ran a story about how a new, neutral symbol for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been approved - one that will allow its use by countries that may suspect the old red cross or red crescent symbols might not be respected by combatants (i.e. in certain situations […]

Not much in terms of Canadian intellectual property law news these last few days.

However, today’s Trade-marks Journal again had a few amusing trade-mark applications advertised. So I’ll blog about them:

FUNKY BULL - 1,254,633, by Red Bull GmbH, in relation to various non-alcholic beverages;

BUMMIES - 1,252,322, by Dr. Paul Smith in relation to […]

Two interesting little articles in today’s Globe & Mail. Nothing really new or earth shattering, but fairly good reviews of the issues.

1) Don’t outsource IP - about the potential dangers of companies outsourcing work to various independent contractors and not obtaining full intellectual property ownership of the work product paid for. The article […]

This week’s Trade-marks Journal had a few amusing trade-mark applications advertised, including:

FUNKY PETALS - 1,182,253, by Christina Zelman, in relation to flower pots, flower arranging services and the like. Cute name for a flower shop;

BIG CRAPPIE - 1,227,684, by Normark Corporation in relation to fishing lures. Not being a fisherman, I initially […]