Brewdog are likely to be raising a Brewdog Elvis Juice filled pint glass to the Appeal Officer who decided that they could register a trade mark for Brewdog Elvis Juice. So Elvis or at least Brewdog Elvis is back in the building – or a Brewdog craft beer pub near you! In my blog last year I predicted that the initial decision refusing to register Elvis Juice and Brewdog Elvis Juice as trade marks would be appealed. It [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that patent royalties were not capital gains for tax purposes when the patentee retained effective control over the corporate recipient of the patents, since the patentee could retrieve the patent rights and had therefore not transferred "all substantial rights" to the patents. Cooper v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Case No. 15-70863 (9th Cir., Dec. 15, 2017) (Graber, J) (Kleinfeld, J, dissenting in part). James Cooper [...]

Much awaited fourth amendment to the IP laws of Vietnam finally comes into force today i.e. on January 15, 2018. Circular No. 16/2016/TT-BKHCN (also called Circular No. 16), which was issued on June 30, 2016 by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Vietnam which amends as well as supplements a number of articles of Circular No. 01/2007/TT-BKHCN (also called Circular 01). The amended circular no. 16 is a critical guidance [...]