E-TIPS

On June 30, 2008 the Commercial Court of Paris (Commercial Court) issued an injunction and ordered eBay Inc (eBay) to pay 38.6 million Euros in damages to SA Louis Vuitton Malletier (Louis Vuitton) for selling fake goods bearing the names of the real, luxury goods manufacturers. eBay petitioned the French Court of Appeals to stay the injunction, but the appeal for the stay was denied on July 11.

Recently, the Office of Patented Medicines and Liaison of Health Canada released its Statistical Report for 2007 (Report) on the administration of the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations (NOC Regulations) and the data protection provisions (C.0.8.004.1) of the Food and Drug Regulations (F & D Regulations).

On June 26, 2008 McNeil Nutritionals LLC, the makers of Splenda®, a non-calorie sweetener, was granted an injunction prohibiting Heartland Sweeteners LLC from distributing a store brand sweetener product found to have similar packaging. The latter company packages store brand sucralose for five different retail store chains. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (District Court) had at first refused an injunction, holding that consumers are highly aware of in-store private label products and expect to see them on retail store shelves side by side with branded products. On appeal, however, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling, finding a likelihood of confusion between two of the products and the branded competitors, and sent the matter back to the District Court to re-evaluate on two points, commenting that the District Court's initial finding would have set a different and lower standard for trade dress cases for store branded products than for branded competitors.

On June 25, 2008, the Government of Canada published the Regulations Amending the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations in Canada Gazette Part II. The amendments (Amending Regulations) were registered and came into force on June 12, 2008.

As previously reported (see E-TIPS ®, Canadian Government Proposes Major Changes to Food and Drugs Act, Vol 6, No 22, May 7, 2008), Bill C-51 was tabled in the House of Commons on April 8, 2008.

In a recent decision of Justice Hughes, Sarnoff Corporation v Canada (Attorney General) (2008 FC 712), the Federal Court has tempered the harsh effect of past decisions on patent maintenance fees. In this case, a law firm, as a successor agent, paid maintenance fees on behalf of an applicant.

On June 25, 2008, the Government of Canada published the Regulations Amending the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations in Canada Gazette Part II. The amendments (Amending Regulations) were registered and came into force on June 12, 2008.

The international governing body of the internet, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), announced that it will expand the domain name suffixes available for Internet addresses. Currently, Internet users are limited to 21 top level domain name suffixes, such as ".com", ".org", or ".info".

Pfizer Inc (Pfizer) and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd (Ranbaxy) have entered into a patent settlement agreement that will end the majority of the worldwide patent litigation between the companies over the hyperlipidaemic drug atorvastatin (LIPITOR), litigation which has continued since 2003.

On June 20th, 2008, the US House of Representatives approved a Bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, putting in place some safeguards to control government eavesdropping, while shielding telecommunication companies from lawsuits. After passage in the House with a 293-129 vote, the Bill was introduced in the Senate on June 26, and is expected to pass by a large margin.

On June 20th, 2008, the US House of Representatives approved a Bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, putting in place some safeguards to control government eavesdropping, while shielding telecommunication companies from lawsuits. After passage in the House with a 293-129 vote, the Bill was introduced in the Senate on June 26, and is expected to pass by a large margin.

A court-appointed arbitrator in California has ordered Media Breakaway LLC to pay US $6 million to MySpace for sending spam e-mail to MySpace members.

Global Harmonization of Medical Devices in Canada (PDF) By Lauren R. Lodenquai

On June 12, 2008, the Federal government introduced Bill C-61 proposing significant amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act (Act).

In a recent unanimous decision, Quanta Computer Inc v LG Electronics Inc (No 06-937) (Quanta), the US Supreme Court has limited the rights of patent holders by broadening the doctrine of patent exhaustion to include method patents.

In response to a privacy complaint about the practice of fingerprinting by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) of Law School Admission Test (LSAT) candidates, in early 2006 the Federal, Alberta and British Columbia Privacy Commissioners launched a joint investigation (previously reported in ETIPS®, Canadian Privacy Commissioners Conduct Probe into LSAT Fingerprinting Practice, Vol 4, No 17, March 1, 2006).

In Canadian Private Copying Collective v First Choice Recording Media Inc (2008 FC 636), Mr. Justice Hugesson of the Federal Court found three companies and their two directors liable for penalties of more than $30m because they failed to pay the private copying levy on blank CDs.

Three of the largest US ISPs have agreed to take steps to combat the spread of child pornography on the Internet. The Attorney General of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, announced on June 10, 2008 that Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint will undertake the following:

The New York State Appeals Court, 3rd Department, has ruled that police do not need to obtain a warrant to place a global positioning system (GPS) device on a driver's vehicle and track the movement of the vehicle on public roadways.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is accepting comments until July 7, 2008 on proposed amendments to the Industrial Design Regulations (Regulations) published on June 7, 2008 in the Canada Gazette. The purpose of the proposed amendments is to modernize the industrial design regulatory regime by making it "more user-friendly, cost-effective and responsive to clients' needs". More specifically, the amendments: