The other day one of our kids asked, “Mum, if you love Oliver Sacks so much, why don’t you marry him?” Well, quite a number of reasons really. Sadly, he’s now dead. And he was gay. And too old for me. Plus, unilateral adulation isn’t the healthiest basis for a relationship. And he did have his demons – he was a complicated person. Also, I already...
Good news for parties looking to set up a quick and hopefully-not-too-dirty private IP dispute resolution procedure – they seem to work. The High Court has scrutinised one such arrangement carefully, in the context of an application to set aside a statutory demand for damages and costs flowing from the decision of an independent expert IP lawyer, and it all stacked up (Beacham Parts &...
If I’m honest, part of the reason I came back to the Bar after nearly six years hearing cases at IPONZ was that I was a bit lonely. I really did like lots of things about that role. I loved running hearings, and I got huge satisfaction from the way patiently untangling each aspect of the law and the facts would usually lead to a clear overall answer. It seemed like magic – the slow...
Applications for non-use are all about making sure that the owner has crossed every t and dotted every i. The owner’s evidence is put under the microscope. Has it shown evidence of use that relates unequivocally to the right period? The right jurisdiction? The right goods and services? Is the mark used in the same form as the mark that is on the register? And...
I am a little anxious about this post. Am I about to stick a knife into a sacred cow? Will it attack me? So I’ll dive straight in: I don’t think patent examination hearings really work in many instances. The structure and the system don’t match the skill-sets of the people involved. Let’s think about what happens when you file a patent application. The patent...
Who is coming along to the inaugural women in IP casual catch up event? It is at Lula’s at the Auckland Viaduct from 5.30pm on 10 September 2019 – big thanks to Laura Carter for getting this organised. In celebration, I thought I would post about some of the practical, tangible obstacles that face women in the law – leaving aside for now attitudinal issues such as unconscious bias. ...
This post is the second in a two-part series highlighting areas of trade mark law that wouldn’t be easy to find out for the non-expert (Part I, which is about proprietorship, is here). In Man Truck & Bus AG v Shaanxi Heavy-Duty Automobile Co Ltd [2017] NZHC 2821 Woodhouse J held that the applicant in s 17(1)(a) oppositions involving specialist goods and services will fail automatically...
Two topics I have been thinking, speaking and writing a lot about this year are patent support and patent sufficiency. There are a number of reasons I have focused on these: First, they are difficult issues to get a handle on, and I wanted to really, properly get to grips with them. (Honestly, I think very few people do really understand these issues, and perhaps that is a reflection of the...
This post is the first in a two-part series about aspects of trade mark law that are invisible to non-experts. These areas of the law are invisible because they have developed through case law – and sometimes pretty obscure case law – rather than being set out in the legislation. IN PRAISE OF CODIFICATION The good thing about statutes is that they are known, they are usually pretty clear...
It feels as though the last week has been pretty full-on, so it’s time for something lighter. If you are into AI, robotics, or sci-fi, then chances are you will already have come across Ian McEwan’s latest novel, Machines Like Me. If you haven’t, then perhaps that’s your next birthday/anniversary present sorted. (It’s a long wait if you want to order it from the library.) In lesser...
