Monday miscellany

English- and Slovak-speaking kittens
are no longer in suspense over the
outcome of Case C-449/09

The IPKat is grateful to his Bulgarian friend Emil Marcov for drawing his attention to the fact that one of the Court of Justice's "mystery cases" has been resolved. The case is Case C-449/09 Canon (see earlier posts here and here), in respect of which the Fifth Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union has made an order -- posted on the Curia website in all official languages of the Union except fot English and Slovak -- to the effect that

‘L’article 5 de la première directive 89/104 ..., doit être interprété en ce sens que le titulaire d’une marque peut s’opposer à la première mise dans le commerce dans l’Espace économique européen, sans son consentement, de produits d’origine portant cette marque [Article 5 of First Directive 89/104... must be interpreted as meaning that proprietor of a trade mark can oppose the first putting on the market in the EEA of original goods bearing this mark without his consent'].

Chinese zodiac cat: will it
be protected folkore?

Yesterday the IPKat reported on the World Intellectual Property Organization's current work on those folklore, traditional culture and genetic resources in "Progress on folklore, culture, genetic resources: 'streamlining' in sight" (here).  He has since spotted this excellent and well-researched piece on the Intellectual Property Watch blog here.

Looking for a healthy, outdoor life?
Try inventing a new crop ...

The 19th Annual Conference, "Biotech and Pharmaceutical Patenting 2011" ,which is organised by IBC Legal, will be held this year in the Westin Grand Hotel,Munich, Germany.  There's a huge cast of excellent and eminent speakers.  For a change, here's a conference that IPKat team member Jeremy is not chairing.  For details of this conference click here.  IPKat readers who register using this link are entitled to a generous 10% discount.


Here's more good news from Dave Sant (on whom see "Chestnuts, hyperlinks and a happy ending", here).  Dave writes to tell the IPKat that he has developed a simple search box, which allows users to search the European Union's Official Journal website by title for Directives and Regulations, using their reference coordinates or even a free text search facility.  It's only a beta site, so don't be upset if it doesn't like searching for geographical indication words like "cheese", but the IPKat played around with it yesterday and found that it either found things very quickly or not at all. You can try it for yourself here. More significantly, Dave adds:

"The legal web is awash with open data, Crown copyright data and liberally licensed data, but without many useful links between data sources to tie it all together. That's where I think this kind of tool can help with research and productivity.

Personally, I think that adding hyperlinks to Curia judgments/opinions may be of use [hear, hear says Merpel]. I would like to be able to easily move between the judgment of a national court making an ECJ referral and the ECJ documents. Perhaps there are other more urgent needs out there? Enriching IPO data? Linking national legislation to the EU legislation it implements? Any input, guidance, wish-lists, demands, [and beer] is welcome from you or your readers".

Please, please contact Dave if you have any suggestions or are good at doing things with code and want to help him.  Dave can be emailed here.

The ultimate solution:
the curryburger

A big thank-you goes to long-time IPKat reader and information-supplier Lee Curtis for spotting this link to an item in The Times of India on the success of Sri Lankan curry company Lanka Spice Limited in registering MC CURRY in India in the face of an opposition by US-based global burger and fast-food giant McDonalds.  The Sri Lankan Intellectual Property Office noted that Lanka Spice's initial "MC" was an abbreviation of Markumbura Condiments (Markumbura being  the village in which the spice factory is located). More significantly, the company has it seems been selling Mc Curry products since 1982, while McDonalds has been trading there for just 12 years. The IPKat reminds readers of the Malaysian McCurry litigation (here and here), which also went against McDonalds, and wonders if Mc Curry and McCurry will ever cross each other's paths. He also wonders whether WIPO or anyone else will want to take action to secure rights in McGurry. Merpel advises brand owners, in situations like this it is wise to curry favour with the local IPO ...  and if you want to know why McDonalds won't sell you curry, click here.