PETOŠEVIĆ News

Kosovo Law on Customs Measures to be Implemented

2010-08-24T09:29:38+00:00

On July 30, 2010, Administrative Instruction No.07/2010 entered into force. The Administrative Instruction addresses implementation of Kosovo’s Law on Customs Measures for Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, which entered into force on January 8, 2010. We wrote about the new law back in January. More details can be found in our article here.

]]>The Administrative Instruction defines procedures for filing a Customs Watch Application with the Customs of the Republic of Kosovo, the necessary documents to be submitted with the Application, the official fee involved, the procedure of filing the liability declaration, and the deposit of the guarantee.

For more information, please contact Kujtesa Nezaj.

Source: PETOSEVIC

Bosnia Adopts Two Copyright Draft Laws

2010-08-24T09:26:18+00:00

On July 13, 2010, the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted two new draft laws in the field of intellectual property, the Draft Law on Copyrights and Related Rights and the Draft Law on the Collective Management of Copyrights and Related Rights. The laws are now being revised by a lexical commission and are to be published in the Official Gazette in the near future. They are expected to enter into force by the end of the year.

]]>The new copyright laws aim to harmonize the Bosnian regulations with the EU laws and existing international convention and treaties. The current law that regulates this area is not harmonized with the EU directives and is only partly harmonized with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Furthermore, the collective management of copyright and related rights is not at all regulated under the current law. It was therefore necessary to create a separate law, mainly to allow a wider and more complete way of regulating this area of copyright.

The copyright holders or their legal representatives can now request customs monitoring for the seized goods protected by the copyright law. The copyright holders and their legal representatives are required to submit the request, which has a two-year time limit for the monitoring of seized goods. After the two years pass, a new request is to be submitted. The copyright holders and their legal representatives will also be required to supply statements that they will cover all expenses in case the seized goods prove to be genuine or in case the copyright holders or their legal representatives cancel the customs procedure.

Furthermore, the five recently adopted intellectual property laws - the Law on the Protection of Indications of Geographical Origin, the Law on the Protection of Topographies of Integrated Circuits, the Law on Industrial Designs, the Trademark Law and the Patent Law - were published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. 53/10 on June 29, 2010, and will enter into force on January 1, 2011.

For more information, please contact Alma Vilic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: Institute for Intellectual Property for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Serbia to join EPO on October 1

2010-08-24T09:23:34+00:00

On July 15, 2010, Serbia deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and will become the European Patent Organization’s (EPO) 38th member state on October 1, 2010.

]]>Serbia will be designated as a Contracting State in European patent applications filed on or after October 1, but it will not be possible to designate Serbia retroactively in applications filed before that date. However, on European patent applications filed in September 2010, the EPO will be able to enter the filing date of October 1, 2010, upon the applicant’s request.

Serbian nationals and residents will also be able to file international applications under the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) with the EPO from October 1.

It has been possible to extend European Patents to Serbia since November 1, 2004, after Serbia signed the Co-operation and Extension Agreement with the EPO. The extension agreement will terminate once the EPC enters into force.

On a different subject, the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification, also known as the IPC Agreement, establishing a common classification system, entered into force for Serbia, the 61st Contracting State, on July 15, 2010. The law ratifying the agreement entered into force in Serbia on June 10, 2009.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: EPO, Serbian IPO

European Court of Justice Rejects Anheuser-Busch's Bid to Register Budweiser as Its Trademark in EU

2010-08-24T09:19:55+00:00

The European Court of Justice ruled on July 29, 2010, that the global brewer Anheuser-Busch cannot register the word “Budweiser” as an EU trademark for its beer. This decision is in the favor of the Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar, which had a prior claim to the name through the trademarks “Budweiser” and “Budweiser Budvar”.

]]>Anheuser-Busch can still hold the trademark within individual EU member states, as it currently does in 23 European countries, but not across the EU trading bloc as a whole. This ruling upholds all current registrations and does not give the Czech brewer greater rights or protection.

The co-existence agreements between the two parties were established in the 1870s agreeing to the Budweiser beer being sold in the United States by Anheuser-Busch and the Budweiser brand sold by Budejovicky Budvar in Europe. However, Anheuser-Busch filed an application in 1996 to register the Budweiser brand on the EU territory as well. Budejovicky Budvar challenged this application three years later, arguing it had already registered this name for its beer brands in Germany, Austria, Italy and the Benelux countries.

The name “Budweiser” means “from Budweis”, which is the German form of the name for the Czech city Budejkovice.

In 2005, the EU’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) ruled that Anheuser-Busch could not register Budweiser as the EU brand. Before taking its case to the European Court of Justice, the brewing giant also unsuccessfully appealed the OHIM’s decision before the European General Court in March 2009.

For more information, please contact Aleksandra Noveska at our Macedonia office.

Source: Deutsche Welle

Facebook Captures Montenegro’s Facebook.me from Cybersquatter

2010-08-24T09:16:56+00:00

On July 13, 2010, the WIPO ordered that the domain name Facebook.me, obtained during Montenegro’s country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .me auction period in 2008, be transferred from the United Arab Emirates resident Amjad Abbas to Facebook, Inc.

]]>Facebook, Inc. filed a complaint with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center on May 7, 2010, arguing that it owns numerous Facebook trademarks around the world and that its online social networking services are internationally renowned. The plaintiff also provided evidence that on April 12, 2010, the disputed domain name was one of the domain names offered for sale at a minimum price of USD 2,000 (EUR 1,575) on a website operated by the defandant Abbas, www.batfind.com.

Abbas argued that he had obtained and registered Facebook.me legally for approximately USD 5,115 (EUR 4,029). He claimed to have also registered Oracle.me, Trump.me and other domains, explaining he collected domain names as a hobby and to impress his friends, with possible future plans of creating non-profit personal blogs. The defendant stressed he did not register Facebook.me for commercial gain, adding that the registrar GoDaddy.com was well-aware of .me domain names auctioned as personal domain names, under the slogan “it’s all about YOU!”. Abbas also asserted that Facebook was not a registered trademark in neither Montenegro nor the United Arab Emirates in August 2008, when he registered the domain name.

The WIPO dismissed his claim, stating that his explanations for registering the domain name were not persuasive and ruled it was registered and used in bad faith.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: WIPO

Forbes Finally Gets Forbes.ru in Russia

2010-08-24T09:14:19+00:00

In July 2010, the American business magazine Forbes finally became the owner of the Forbes.ru domain name in Russia, seven months after winning a domain name infringement case against a Russian cyber squatter who had been illegally using it.

]]>In January 2010, the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled against the Russian travel agency Landmark VIP Services for the unauthorized use of the magazine’s trademark and ordered the defendant to pay USD 300,000 (EUR 212,000) in damages, the highest compensation ever awarded in Russia in a domain infringement case.

Landmark VIP Services however appealed and won a right to annul the court’s decision. Forbes then filed a counter-appeal but has in the meantime reached a private agreement with the travel agency, whose managing director says it transferred the domain “as a gesture of goodwill”. It is not mentioned whether the private settlement involved a payment from Forbes.

The Russian edition of Forbes had been using the alternative domain name forbesrussia.ru since November 10, 2009, when its Russian website was launched.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: Forbes.ru

Czech Arbitration Court Rules Against Serbian Underwear Producer in Domain Name Dispute

2010-08-24T09:08:52+00:00

On August 11, 2010, the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) ordered the domain name Bugattidoo.com to be transferred from the Serbian underwear producer Bugatti d.o.o. to F. W. Brinkman GmbH, the renowned German producer of clothing, footwear, leather products and accessories.

]]>The German company, which initiated the legal proceedings, registered the Bugatti mark in 1978 in Germany, while the Bugatti brand became internationally known during the 1990s. The defendant was previously known as Dakota d.o.o. and changed its name to Bugatti d.o.o. in July 2006.

The defendant filed trademark applications to register the mark Bugatti in October 2009 and the mark Bugattidoo Underwear in July 2008 but both attempts were unsuccessful.

The plaintiff argued that it is commercially present on the Internet through the domain name Bugatti.de and that its Bugatti clothing brand has become well-known in many countries, including Serbia, long before the defendant’s registration of the infringing domain name in October 2006.

The CAC ruled that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the plaintiff’s trademark and that the defendant registered and used it in bad faith, i.e. to attract Internet users to its website for commercial gain.

The CAC provides dispute resolution for top-level domains such as .com. It was recently appointed as a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy provider (UDRP) by ICANN.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: CAC, PETOSEVIC

Russian Publisher Fined USD 250M in Copyright Case

2010-08-24T09:05:38+00:00

On July 20, 2010, the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled against a leading Russian book publisher AST in a copyright infringement case and ordered it to pay an unprecedented sum of USD 250 million (EUR 197 million) in damages to a smaller Russian publisher Terra.

]]>The Moscow Times reported that Astrel, a subsidiary of AST, infringed on Terra’s copyright by publishing books written by the acclaimed Russian science fiction author Alexander Romanovich Belyayev (1884-1942).

Terra asserted that its claim against AST was based on the Civil Code clause that extends the duration of copyrights for authors who worked during the Second World War to 70 years after their death. Some experts, however, argue the clause cannot be applied retroactively to Belyayev’s writings since it was introduced in 1993, 51 years after his death.

AST is reportedly planning to appeal the decision, claiming that Belyayev’s works entered the public domain in 1992, 50 years after his death.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: The Moscow Times

Georgian Wines Get GI Status in EU

2010-08-24T09:02:30+00:00

On July 29, 2010, the EU and Georgia signed an agreement according to which wine companies in the EU will have to respect 18 geographical indications on Georgian wines.

]]>The protected Georgian wines include Khvanchkara, Tsinandali, Kindzmarauli, Saperavi, Mukuzani and Akhasheni.

Georgian winemakers reoriented their sales to Western markets after Russia imposed an import ban on Georgian wine in 2006, claiming it did not fulfill Russia’s health standards.

In return, Georgian wine producers agree not to sell sparkling wine labeled as Champagne and other EU wines with the GI status on their domestic market.

The agreement is part of EU’s strategy to export its GI system via agreements with non-EU countries. The goal is to protect EU’s best-known products from copycats, which are primarily found in emerging markets.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: Trend

Serbian Public Broadcaster to Pay EUR 1.3M to Copyright Protection Organization

2010-08-24T08:59:52+00:00

On July 27, 2010, the Commercial Court in Belgrade issued a first instance verdict ordering the public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) to pay the Serbian copyright organization SOKOJ EUR 1,293,739 (USD 1,653,614) for broadcasting music without paying the royalties to the music composers.

]]>SOKOJ has been involved in a long legal battle with RTS over the nonpayment of royalties. RTS is planning to appeal the court’s decision.

SOKOJ representative Milos Pejovic told the news agency BETA that this was the most important decision ever made in the field of copyright protection and that it makes it clear that the legislation in this area must be respected. Pejovic added that if the decision becomes final, RTS will have to pay SOKOJ nearly EUR 2,000,000 (USD 2,556,334) after the interest rates are added to the amount determined by the court.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: Blic, BETA

EU Issues Annual Report on Customs IPR Enforcement

2010-08-24T08:55:20+00:00

On July 22, 2010, the European Commission published its annual report on customs detentions at the European Union (EU) borders in 2009. The report contains statistics based on the data submitted by the EU member states and covers the customs activities, the quantities, categories and origins of detained goods and the types of infringed intellectual property rights.

]]>According to the report, in 2009 the customs administrations in the member states intervened in 43,572 cases, approximately 6,000 less than in 2008. The total number of items suspected of infringing IP rights and detained at the EU borders decreased to approximately 118,000,000; in 2008, approximately 178,000,000 articles were reported.

In Bulgaria and Romania, in 2009 the number of customs interventions decreased, while the number of detained articles increased. In Bulgaria there were 1,686 interventions in 2008 compared to 1,232 in 2009. The number of detained articles, however, increased from 5,500,154 in 2008 to 11,335,030 in 2009. In Romania, the number of interventions decreased from 284 in 2008 to 182 in 2009, while the number of detained articles increased from 2,731,117 in 2008 to 7,728,945 in 2009.

Overall in the EU, the counterfeit goods were destroyed in 47 percent of the cases, while in 12 percent of the cases the goods were released, either because they were found to be non-infringing or because the right holders did not react to the official notifications within the prescribed time limits.

The top categories of detained goods follow the pattern of the previous years with cigarettes contributing to 19 percent of the total number of seized goods, followed by other tobacco products (16 percent), labels, tags and emblems (13 percent) and medicines (8 percent).

China remained the main origin of counterfeit items, with 64 percent of the seized goods coming from China, followed by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Regarding the types of goods seized, China is the main origin of tobacco, clothing, shoes, mobile phones and electrical and computer equipment, Turkey is the main origin of food and alcoholic beverages, while the UAE is the main origin of medicines.

Most of the detained goods were shipped by sea (88,500,000), air (18,000,000) and by road (7,400,000). In 2008, the same means of transport occupied the first three positions. The report also mentions that the number of cases of postal transport is increasing.

The majority of the articles, namely 90.05 percent, were suspected of infringing a Community or national trademark, 4.99 percent concerned patents and 3.57 percent copyright and related rights.

For more information, please contact Roxana Sarghi at our Romania office.

Source: European Commission

Macedonian Customs Detain Armani, Prada, Gucci Counterfeits

2010-08-24T08:52:26+00:00

During regular controls at Macedonia’s border crossings in the period between July 5 and August 3, 2010, the customs officials detained a considerable quantity of goods bearing well-known brand names, believed to be counterfeit.

]]>In the week of July 5-11, the customs officials detained 8,500 lighters bearing the logo of BMW, while in the week of July 12-18, the officials detained 826 soccer sets containing shorts and shirts bearing the logo of Adidas and 354 children’s T-shirts bearing the logos of D&G and Armani.

In the week of July 19-25, the customs officials detained 70 textile articles (T-shirts and dresses) bearing among others the logos of D&G, Armani, Prada and Playboy, and 84 cosmetic products (creams and perfumes) bearing the marks of Cera di Kupra, Armani, Boss, Gucci and Versace.

In the period July 26–August 3, the customs officials detained 504 textile articles (underwear and trousers) bearing the logos of G-Star, Armani and Prada.

The goods, which were found in trucks and vehicles with Turkish, Macedonian and British license plates, originated in Turkey, China, and Dubai and were intended for the Macedonian and Kosovo markets.

For more information, please contact Aleksandra Noveska at our Macedonia office.

Source: Macedonian Customs

Bulgarian Customs Seize Hello Kitty, Levi’s, Fred Perry Counterfeits

2010-08-24T08:51:04+00:00

During regular controls at Bulgaria’s border crossings, the customs officials have recently seized a considerable quantity of goods bearing well-known brand names, believed to be counterfeit.

]]>The officials at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing point, southern Bulgaria, have recently discovered 4,735 textile products bearing the Hello Kitty mark.

The officials at Svilengrad, southern Bulgaria, discovered nearly 20,000 plastic bags bearing the mark of Levi’s.

During another recent inspection, the officials in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia seized nearly 1,500 T-shirts, 1,300 of them undeclared and 200 of them bearing the mark of Fred Perry, as well as 282 beach towels bearing the mark of Ferrari.

The infringing goods were found in trucks with Turkish license plates and were intended for the Bulgarian market.

For more information, please contact Milena Bogoslovova at our Bulgaria office.

Source: Econ.bg

Bulgarian Police Seize Counterfeit Goods, Infringers Face Imprisonment

2010-08-24T08:48:17+00:00

During their recent inspections of several commercial sites located in the town of Blagoevgrad in southwestern Bulgaria, the Bulgarian police officials have seized a large amount of counterfeit clothing and accessories from at least 11 stores and warehouses.

]]>During the inspection of several shops on August 4, 2010, the police officials confiscated 200 items bearing among others Adidas, D&G and Botticelli marks.

The seized goods included trousers, gowns, leather belts, shoes and bags worth more than EUR 132,935 (USD 168,763).

Some of the dealers were issued a fine of EUR 2,556 (USD 3,244) and face up to five years in prison.

For more information, please contact Milena Bogoslovova at our Bulgaria office.

Source: Dariknews.bg

Romanian Customs Seize Chanel, Prada, Puma, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Adidas Counterfeits

2010-08-24T08:41:26+00:00

During regular controls in the period between July 8 and August 17, 2010, the Romanian customs officials seized a considerable quantity of goods believed to be counterfeit, bearing the labels of well-known brands, worth over EUR 600,000 (USD 761,000).

]]>On July 8, the customs officials at the port of Constanta, on the western coast of the Black Sea, seized 432 pairs of shoes and 1,293 backpacks, bearing the marks of Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Prada and Hannah Montana. The goods, discovered in containers originating in China, intended for companies in Hungary and Bulgaria, were worth EUR 97,185 (USD 123,395).

On July 12, the officials at the same port seized 1,152 pairs of shoes, 1,684 pairs of pants and 1,951 baby clothes bearing the logos of Puma, Gucci, Hello Kitty, worth approximately EUR 211,400 (USD 268,545).

Moreover, on August 17, the officials seized 5,300 pairs of pants bearing the logo of Adidas worth approximately EUR 238,500 (USD 302,971). The goods were discovered in containers originating in China, intended for a company in Moldova.

On July 26, the customs officials seized a considerable quantity of counterfeit goods at a shopping center in Bucharest. They seized more than 2,000 clothing articles (blouses, T-shirts, sweatshirts, pants and shorts) bearing the logo of Adidas, Nike, Puma, Lacoste, Armani, Dolce & Gabanna, 551 sneakers bearing the marks of Nike, Adidas, Puma and Lacoste, and 931 perfume bottles, bearing the marks of Dolce & Gabanna, Hugo Boss, Kenzo, Lancome, Guess, Armani and Gucci.

For more information, please contact Marius Ciobanasu at our Romania office.

Source: Romanian Customs