The US Department of Commerce has issued a report
identifying the sectors that generate intellectual property
and the impact of those sectors on the US economy. At a time when the debate over IP rights rages on, the study sheds light on the contribution of intellectual property to economic performance – with trademarks playing a central role.

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review

The second edition of the WTR 1000 builds on the success of the first, identifying the world’s leading trademark legal services providers. In the first of a regular column, the research team identifies key regional trends and presents a selection of the rankings available in the publication

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review

The US Department of Commerce has issued a lengthy report identifying the sectors that generate the most intellectual property and the impact of those sectors on the US economy. At a time when the debate over IP rights rages on, the study sheds important light on the contribution of IP to economic performance – with trademarks playing a central role.

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review

The forthcoming World Trademark Review 1000 ranks
the world’s leading law and trademark attorney firms and individuals. In this exclusive preview, we identify the firms with the highest number of rankings by jurisdiction and by individual practitioner, revealing the leaders in global trademark practice

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review

Next month WIPO member states and interested parties will discuss a new draft instrument for the protection of geographical indications (GIs) and appellations of origin. The proposals follow Antonio Campinos’ recent statement that OHIM would welcome the opportunity to oversee a non-agricultural register of GIs. However, the Europe v United States divide on GIs seems as wide as ever.

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review

The USPTO’s study into trademark litigation tactics failed to shed any new light on the issue of bullying, but a public meeting has been set to discuss the potential role industry associations can play in providing legal education programs on trademark policing. At the same time, a new initiative aims to establish a trademark bullying clearinghouse. The first challenge will be defining when enforcement becomes bullying.

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review

The findings of a study commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office to evaluate the benefits of trademark registration – that it does have a positive effect – will surprise no trademark attorney. The authors’ criticism of brand-building, however, will disappoint many.

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review

With ICANN’s hotly anticipated approval of the expansion of the internet this month, new generic top-level domains have ruled the WTR charts. Our story on IKEA’s decision to scrap its plans to run a ‘.ikea’ registry based on a lack of understanding of the new regime zoomed to the top of our table of most-read articles. The news from IKEA was revealed during ECTA’s annual conference in Stockholm.

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ECTA has expressed one of the strongest criticisms of the Max Planck Institute European trademark system study to date, saying that the institute was not brave enough to clean up the genuine use question. The barb came during ECTA’s annual conference, where rumours circulated that, before publishing their study, the MPI authors may have changed their original recommendation after learning that the Commission did not like it.

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How do you look for something that you don’t know how to detect? The question over whether the CTM register has become cluttered is now at stalemate. While it was among the topics that the European Commission discussed with user groups last week in light of the publication of the European trademark study (in the very same room where the 2008 Compromise Solution was negotiated), it is not clear how on earth the Commission is expected to make sense of the issue.

World Trademark Review World Trademark Review