IP Australian has recently released figures relating to filings, acceptance and fields that applicants are filing in. It provides some insight as to where Australian’s are heading regarding Intellectual Property. Full results of their internal review can be found here.

In what is being described as a win (of sorts) for the online auction giant, eBay, a US District Court judge has gone against the grain of recent French court decisions and has found that eBay is not responsible for counterfeit goods being sold through its online auction websites. In a similar vein to the recent French decisions regarding fake Hermes handbags, Louis Vuitton goods and Christian Dior perfumery being sold on eBay, Tiffany (NJ) Inc. and Tiffany and Company argued that eBay had an obligation to investigate and control the illegal activities of people selling counterfeit Tiffany products through its auction sites. But US Disctrict Court Judge Sullivan found to the contrary, commenting that “eBay is not liable for contributory trademark infringement”, leaving Tiffany (the trade mark rights owner) to shoulder the burden of curtailing counterfeit trade on eBay websites through eBay’s VeRO program and similar.

The estate of author CS Lewis, have filed a complaint through WIPO’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) seeking transfer of the domain name www.NARNIA.mobi from an eleven year old Scottish boy who was to receive it as a birthday gift from his parents. He was a fan of the CS Lewis novels. His parents thought he’d like to use the domain as an e-mail address.

Coming up with an invention is a pretty impressive moment of anyone’s life. The temptation to tell all and sundry, ranging from family and friends to professional colleagues is huge. While getting that article about your life changing device in New Scientist might be very gratifying, it can close a lot of doors relating to your possible intellectual property. The novelty of your invention prior to filing a patent application is a frail thing, and can be ruined very quickly if you are not careful. Novelty of your invention is one of the three important elements that make your invention patentable, without it you will not be able to obtain patent protection

Following up on our recent article regarding the sale of fake luxury Hermes handbags by a woman on eBay which landed the online auction giant in trouble with the French courts, eBay has again been ordered to compensate another luxury brand company for sales of counterfeit goods conducted through its eBay.fr website.