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News and actualities
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Join Brands in the Picture 2012
14/05/2012 -
Levi Strauss: actively protecting his IP rights
14/05/2012A denim retailer based in Fargo, North Dakota is asking a federal judge to settle a trademark infringement dispute it is currently in with... -
A new trademark: Lamborghini Huracan
14/05/2012Lamborghini has recently filed for a new trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for 'Huracan'. The word translates to 'hurricane'... -
Motorola wins Xbox 360 patent lawsuit
3/05/2012Motorola Mobility has been granted an injunction against the distribution of key Microsoft products in Germany. The sales ban covers the Xbox... -
Nokia files patent lawsuits
3/05/2012Nokia has filed a series of lawsuits against two rival handset makers, Taiwan-based HTC and Blackberry-maker RIM. The Finnish firm said the... -
Brands in the Picture 2012: 422 photos so far
1/05/2012Novagraaf started the photography competition Brands in the Picture 2012 four weeks ago. At this time, we have received a great number of 422... -
Your song or my song?
1/05/2012More than 25 years after his hit song ‘Nikita’ became a top ten hit, Elton John is being accused of stealing the lyrics of the song.... -
Counterfeit goods not just an issue for luxury brands
1/05/2012One of Europe’s biggest discount fashion stores, Primark, announced in late April that it was taking legal action against a fake shop... -
YouTube loses copyright claim
26/04/2012A German regional court has ruled that YouTube bears responsibility for content on its site that infringes on copyrights. The court would like... -
A revolutionary patent agreement by Twitter
19/04/2012Twitter has announced plans to put its patents in the control of the engineers and designers behind the innovations. It said the move would... -
Join Brands in the Picture 2012
17/04/2012Two weeks ago, Novagraaf started with a new edition of Brands in the Picture. A photography competition in which brands play a central role.... -
There is only one direction?
16/04/2012The British boy band One Direction is being sued by another band, based in the USA, also called One Direction. The American boy band states... -
Microsoft purchases patents AOL
16/04/2012AOL Inc. announced that the Company has entered into a definitive agreement to sell over 800 of its patents and their related patent... -
Annual report on intellectual property enforcement
16/04/2012The White House recently issued its Annual Report on Intellectual Property Enforcement. The text reaffirms Obama’s stance on SOPA: that IP... -
Intellectual property: strengthening asset and source of inspiration?
12/04/20122012 – a year of renewed growth through innovation. But if everyone agrees to recognise it, the implementation is actually more complicated.... -
Brands in the Picture 2012 has started
3/04/2012After the overwhelming success of 2011, we started the second edition of Brands in the Picture on Monday April 2nd. Brands in the Picture is a... -
GTI descriptive for cars
3/04/2012In 1976 Volkswagen introduced the GOLF GTI. A sporty car which acquired an enormous popularity. Volkswagen registered the letter combination... -
A new patent dispute on the horizon
2/04/2012A lawsuit has claimed that six leading technology firms have infringed patents for a process that turns text and images into pixels displayed... -
Facebook purchases IBM patents
28/03/2012Facebook has confirmed it has bought some of IBM's intellectual property rights. The social network would not provide further detail, but... -
Sweet son of mine
20/03/2012In December last year we wrote that a trademark cannot be registered if the trademark is misleading or contrary to public order and morality.... -
Big Ikea’s victory
20/03/2012The Dutch company Inter Ikea Systems B.V., the owner and worldwide franchisor of the famous IKEA concept and trademarks, has won a Uniform... -
The importance of design
16/03/2012Sir Jonathan Ive is arguably one of the world’s most influential people. He is Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design. In a... -
Yahoo doesn’t LIKE Facebook
13/03/2012Yahoo sues Facebook over 10 patents that include methods and systems for advertising on the Web, according to a copy of the lawsuit. The... -
Hermès fails to register its Chinese name
6/03/2012The rapid economic growth in China attracts companies that see opportunities in this emerging market. However, before entering the Chinese... -
France and Guatemala launch IDNs
6/03/2012In May 2012 AFNIC, the official French Network Information Centre, will launch internationalized domain names (IDN) under .fr (France), as... -
Apple versus Proview continues
6/03/2012No verdict was reached in the iPad trademark battle between US tech giant Apple and the Chinese company Proview Technology at Guangdong High... -
Vogue wins case against Swiss watchmaker
23/02/2012On January 31, 2012, the companies producing the magazine "Vogue" were successful before the District Court of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). These... -
Changes in .pt registration & other domain news
21/02/2012As of the 1st of May 2012, changes in the registration possibilities for the Portuguese country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) .pt will take... -
EU Court prohibits copyright filter requirement for hosters
21/02/2012Copyright holders cannot force social networking sites to install filters to prevent illegal file-sharing, the European Court of Justice (ECJ)... -
China seizes iPads
20/02/2012Chinese company Proview Technology has asked customs officials to block shipments of Apple's iPad both into and out of the country. If the... -
Louboutin battles to keep red sole trademark
14/02/2012The ongoing dispute between luxury French shoe designer Christian Louboutin and rival YSL over claims that the label copied his famous red... -
EPO sets up Advisory Board to review patent system
7/02/2012The role and structure of fees, the importance of patent quality and challenges to the functioning of the patent system from overlapping... -
MGM Resorts wins in domain name arbitration
7/02/2012An arbitrator with the National Arbitration Forum - the international dispute resolution provider for domain name disputes - has awarded MGM... -
Blue Ivy Carter trademark issues (part 2)
7/02/2012On the 19th of January we published an article about the designer Joseph Mbeh. He filed a trademark application with the United States Patent... -
EU investigates Samsung’s patent deals
7/02/2012Samsung's patent deals are being looked into by the European Commission. Competition regulators are investigating whether the firm used some... -
Newt Gingrich sued over use of ‘Eye of the Tiger’
6/02/2012Last week Frank Sullivan, co-author of the hit song ‘Eye of the Tiger’, sued the Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich for using... -
New domain name launches: .cp6 and .jp.net
6/02/2012Two new domain name extensions have recently been launched. ICANN assigned .срб (.srb written in Serbian Cyrillic script) as the new... -
Battle of the blocks: Lego versus Mega Brands (update)
24/01/2012Mega Brands has withdrawn its lawsuit in a California court alleging that Danish rival Lego was using trademark laws in the U.S. to protect... -
Domain name dispute over richardbranson.xxx
24/01/2012Virgin is attempting to gain control of the domain name richardbranson.xxx. The company took the action after an individual unconnected with... -
Call for urgent measures on fake malaria drugs
23/01/2012The distribution of fake and poor quality anti-malarial drugs could dash hopes of controlling malaria in Africa, warn experts in an article in... -
Battle of the blocks: Lego versus Mega Brands
20/01/2012The world's two largest construction toy companies could soon face off in a California court as Mega Brands seeks to invalidate Lego's... -
Designer seeks to trademark Blue Ivy’s name
19/01/2012A fashion designer from New York, called Joseph Mbeh, filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, for... -
New gTLD applications start as planned at January the 12th
10/01/2012This Thursday, 12 January 2012, the 90 day application window for the new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) opens at the Internet Corporation... -
‘Charbucks’ wins in legal battle against Starbucks
10/01/2012A small coffee roasting business in New Hampshire (U.S.), called The Black Bear Micro Roastery, finally gained victory after 14 years of legal... -
The end is near for Kodak
9/01/2012One of the best books about brands is the 1996 classic Building Strong Brands by David A. Aaker. In his introduction he says “as industries... -
New case of plagiarism by Rihanna
6/01/2012Last week popstar Rihanna released the official video for her latest single You Da One. Just a short time after the release of the video a few... -
No more unsafe walking with new patent?
5/01/2012Microsoft has been issued a patent on a computer system for ‘pedestrian route production’ - better known as walking directions - that... -
What the -peep-? OHIM refuses trademark application
20/12/2011Under Benelux and European trademark law a trademark must have distinctive character in order to be registered as a trademark. If not, a... -
British Telecom sues Google for patent infringement
19/12/2011British Telecom (BT) is claiming billions of dollars of damages from Google in a lawsuit filed in the US which says that the Android mobile... -
Google gets driverless car patent
19/12/2011Google has received a patent for its driverless car technology. First revealed a year ago, the patent includes a plan for mixed-mode... -
Ruling on the EU and fake goods
19/12/2011The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that fake goods arriving from outside the EU, supposedly en route to other non-EU... -
Copyright war on La Dolce Vita
6/12/2011Federico Fellini’s classic film 'La Dolce Vita' is legendary; the film won several prices, is still a source of inspiration for directors... -
Elves love ale
6/12/2011Elves seems to love ale, or in fact, brewers seems to love using elves for their ales... Troegs Brewing Co., a Pennsylvania beer brewer, has... -
EU patent comes closer
6/12/2011The EU patent 'package' moved a step closer to final approval when the Legal Affairs Committee approved a mandate to open formal negotiations... -
Brother versus Brother
5/12/2011Trouble in Jamaica’s most important reggae family. The widow and nine children of Bob Marley are suing Bob’s half brother Richard Booker... -
ECJ announces first decision on EU Design Rights
22/11/2011We’ve waited a long time for it, but now it finally has arrived: the first decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) with respect to... -
Microsoft is watching you…
22/11/2011Sometimes when you read news articles, you are left wondering if they are really true. We found one of those. Microsoft updated its U.S.... -
Patent war: HTC versus Apple
22/11/2011In August this year Taiwanese smart phone maker HTC filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against Apple, accusing its American rival of infringing its... -
The forbidden apple: David vs. Goliath
7/11/2011You may expect that after the Apple-Samsung battle Apple has no energy left to start another dispute, but apparently Apple still has some time... -
Update new gTLDs
7/11/2011On June 20, 2011, ICANN's Board of Directors has approved a plan to usher in one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet's Domain Name... -
Short update on Qatar, Russia and Kazakhstan domains
4/11/2011Regarding the re-launch of registration under .qa, the extension for Qatar, General Availability has now begun. Registration is unrestricted... -
Sunrise period .xxx closed
4/11/2011ICM Registry, the company behind the .xxx top-level domain (TLD), officially closed its Sunrise A and Sunrise B periods. The Sunrise Period,... -
European Court of Justice in Interflora case
11/10/2011On September 22 2011, the European Court rendered its long-awaited decision in the Interflora and Marks & Spencer (‘M&S’) case. It is the... -
Men at Work goes down under
11/10/2011The Australian band Men at Work have lost their final court bid to prove they did not steal the distinctive flute riff of their 1980s hit Down... -
Sovjet emblem denied as trademark
27/09/2011There is always something going on in the fashion industry. In 2006, a Russian fashion designer’s figurative trademark application (see... -
In da Court
27/09/201150 Cent hits the newspapers again after winning a copyright infringement lawsuit. What happened? -
Decease of Herman Scheffer
23/09/2011Herman Scheffer, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Novagraaf Group, has passed away. Although he was suffering from severe health... -
Update dissolvement Netherlands Antilles
21/09/2011The Netherlands Antilles has ceased to exist as from October 2010. The islands Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba have become municipalities... -
Copyright law changed
13/09/2011Musicians are celebrating as the EU is set to extend money-making copyright protection on their music by 20 years. The ruling, known as... -
Material Girl
13/09/2011Madonna might be living in a material world, however, her claim to the trademark “Material Girl’’ will not materialize. -
We got a situation
13/09/2011Rumble in the trademark jungle for Jersey Shore actress and 'guidette' Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced... -
New domain name extension .xxx
24/08/2011In March of this year, the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved the controversial new top level domain .xxx.... -
Bad Romance
16/08/2011Nothing is easy in entertainment land this summer. Lady Gaga is sued again for copyright infringement. Vocalist Rebecca Fancescatti, says... -
Copyright: A monkey’s business
16/08/2011Doesn’t she look cute? Believe it or not, this picture was not made by human hands. It was made by her. On July 5th, the British newspaper... -
Head over heels
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Declaration of independence of South Sudan
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Court of Justice has ruled in L’Oreal / eBaycase!
19/07/2011The Court ruled that online intermediaries (such as eBay) may be held liable under the E-Commerce Directive for infringement committed by... -
New gTLD’s approaching!
4/07/2011The Internet is changing. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), responsible for managing the stability and security of... -
New information on a number of extensions
23/05/2011Please click to find out all the latest IDN news. We have updates for .asia, .jobs, .ee, .gr, .hk, .hu, and a lot more... -
Evaluation ICANN’s IDN ccTLD Fast Track
9/05/2011ICANN have recently announced the approval of official IDN ccTLD extensions for Bangladesh (.বাংলা) and Yemen (اليمن.) bringing... -
Top Brands from Japan and China
2/02/2011Interbrand has released their ranking of “Japan’s Best Global Brands 2011”. This ranking converts the values of global brands... -
Trademark Policy Google in relation to Ad Texts: Canada, UK en Ireland update!
14/09/2010As discussed below, Google decided that as from September 14th it will be possible for advertisers to select the trademark of a third party as... -
Google EU/EFTA AdWords Trademark Policy Update
5/08/2010The European Court of Justice has issued several rulings in relation to the Google Adwords system and the question whether Google and/or the...
References
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IP Tools
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Novagraaf has a variety of specialist tools to help its clients to protect and manage their Intellectual Property (IP) rights. These instruments represent a means of exploring issues with respect to IP.
