[Commons-Law] From the other side

Wed Nov 27 15:53:43 IST 2002

Dear All

Dont ask me why, but the following newsletter made it to my mailbox. 
Great info in there. And it was very  difficult to actually make this 
data reach you as the email was coded not to forward!

best
M

Envisional News Letter
Contents

1)   Introduction
2)   By Any Other Name 
3)   IP News from  November 2002

Introduction
Welcome to Envisional's regular newsletter, designed to keep our 
partners and other contacts up to date with the latest developments 
in the world of intellectual property protection. In this issue, 
we talk about the increasing efforts companies are taking to protect 
their trademarks both off-line and online. I hope you enjoy this 
newsletter, and find it useful - please do let us know what you think.

By Any Other Name
Last month, Victoria Beckham, known to many as Posh Spice, decided to 
stop Peterborough United, from registering the trademark "Posh". This 
might seem like a reasonable step, were it not for the fact that the 
football team has been known as the Posh for about seventy years. 
Trademark law seems to have been brought to the public's attention in 
a number of recent high profile news stories, some of which seem to 
have more justification than others.

  Envisional presents its top ten of recent trademark disputes:

1    Posh Spice vs Peterborough United (The Posh) 
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2404285.stm>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2404285.stm

2    Bill Wyman vs Bill Wyman 
<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/11/21/MN231868.DTL>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/11/21/MN231868.DTL

3    Arsenal vs a Street Trader 
<http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,838665,00.html>http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,838665,00.html

4    Victoria's Secret vs Victor's Secret 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45889-2002Nov12.html>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45889-2002Nov12.html

5    Easy Group vs Easy Art 
<http://www.netimperative.info/cmn/viewdoc.jsp?cat=all&docid=BEP1_News_0000045311>http://www.netimperative.info/cmn/viewdoc.jsp?cat=all&docid=BEP1_News_0000045311

6    Mattel vs Websites 
<http://www.tribnet.com/business/story/2095678p-2192378c.html>http://www.tribnet.com/business/story/2095678p-2192378c.html

7    Adidas vs Steven Madden 
<http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2002/11/18/daily41.html>http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2002/11/18/daily41.html

8    Mars vs Mars Food 
<http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=28562574>http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=28562574

9    Philip Morris vs Sega 
<http://www.tobacco.org/news/109094.html>http://www.tobacco.org/news/109094.html

10    Half Price Books vs Barnes & Noble 
<http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-21-2002/0001846479&EDATE>http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-21-2002/0001846479&EDATE=

While it may be questionable as to whether it is right for Bill Wyman 
to stop a journalist from using his name, or for Posh Spice to stop a 
football team using the name it has had for over half a century, it 
is certainly the case that many trademark infringements can be very 
serious, and potentially very damaging to a company and its good name.

Clearly companies are taking their trademarks very seriously. The 
internet has of course prsented a range of new opportunities for 
trademark infringement and passing off, and the same companies that 
are so actively protecting their intellectual property in the real 
world need to be taking similarly active measures to protect it on 
the internet, where it is vastly easier to infringe, and has the 
potential to reach a vastly larger audience.

Envisional carries out a lot of work for a number of clients in 
monitoring and protecting trademarks, and in carrying out this work 
have seen an extraordinary range of infringements. Some examples of 
infringements are listed on our website: 
<http://www.envisional.com/insite/abuse.html>http://www.envisional.com/insite/abuse.html. 
Preventing such infringements can be extremely difficult. It is 
certainly important to ensure that suitable trademark registrations 
are made, but a reliable monitoring system to identify infringements 
as they occur is also vital.

IP News from October / November 2002 

File swap nets will win, DRM and lawyers lose, say MS researchers
The Register reports on a new paper by Microsoft Researchers which 
states that DRM cannot stop piracy in the long term:

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28231.html>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28231.html

When Mickey Mouse Goes Public
The  Intellectual Property and Technology forum reports that many 
early Mickey Mouse films may soon fall out of copyright, if the 
recent challenge by a group of US publishers against the so called 
"Mickey Mouse Extension Act" which was brought in in 1995 to extend 
the length of copyright in America:
<http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/headlines/headlines.html#2002103001>http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/headlines/headlines.html#2002103001 

Mexico Summit Urges Anti-Piracy Action 
CNet reports that countries including the United States, China, Japan 
and other Pacific Rim Countries, have agreed at a recent summit on 
measures that will help to "curtail copyright infringement over the 
Internet":
<http://news.com.com/2100-1023-963538.html>http://news.com.com/2100-1023-963538.html

File Swapping "Madster" Must Track Songs

CNN Reports on the recent court case between the RIAA and the 
file-sharing system, Madster (previously known as Aimster) in which 
the court ordered Madster to monitor all songs being shared through 
its system:

<http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/biztech/11/01/madster.ruling.ap/index.html>http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/biztech/11/01/madster.ruling.ap/index.html   

Bitter Row over Trademark Spoof

The BBC reports that Nike has complained to the owners of John Smiths 
Bitter about one of its recent television commercials. Nike have said 
that the use of the words "Just 'ave it" and a modified John Smiths 
logo, bent into a similar shape to the Nike "swoosh" logo, represent 
trademark infringement:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2353565.stm>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2353565.stm

  Websites to Police: 'Keep Out'

Sunspot.net reports on the increasing trend of websites which are 
carrying out potentially illegal activities. The sites include a 
warning message on their front page which suggests that no-one can 
access the site for law-enforcement or related purposes. The article 
points out that this is a misguided practice, and does not in any way 
protect the website owners if they are carrying out any illegal 
activities.

<http://www.sunspot.net/technology/bal-sites1119,0,674770.story?coll=bal-technology-headlines>http://www.sunspot.net/technology/bal-sites1119,0,674770.story?coll=bal-technology-headlines

Request for Comments

We would like to make this newsletter as useful and worthwhile as 
possible for our partners and clients. If you have any questions you 
would like to see answered, or any comments, criticism or suggestions 
you would like us to pass on, then please do send them to Ben Coppin 
(<mailto:ben at envisional.com>ben at envisional.com) or Brian Earle 
(<mailto:brian at envisional.com>brian at envisional.com).
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-- 
Monica Narula
Sarai:The New Media Initiative
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net