Baldwins l Intellectual Property

The Ministry for Science and Innovation has made a new grant available through the International Relationships Fund. The grant is designed to support local science-based business in the biomedical, health and functional food…more

In the early 2000s, few would have grasped the worldwide legal ramifications for offering file sharing software and services. Following Napster, file sharing technology was new and exciting, consumers were embracing the idea,…more

Australia took a world first step last year in passing legislation mandating plain packaging of tobacco products. Now, while the Australian Government goes in to battle with tobacco companies over the legality of its actions,…more

The first enforcement (third strike) notices have now been issued to alleged copyright infringers in New Zealand. New Zealand brought the ‘three strikes’ or ‘skynet’ law into force in September 2011, under the provisions of…more

A new programme has been set up with the aim of encouraging pharmaceutical companies and the global health research community to share intellectual property (IP) assets and expertise. The programme is being promoted by the World…more

There’s been much talk recently about the plight of those who have coined or been the subject of catch-phrases, only to find that someone else is profiting from the catch-phrase by being the first to register it as a trade mark…more

Applications to register new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) will close on 12 April, 2012. These domain names allow business names or brands to be registered as top level domains. The Internet Corporation for Assigned…more

Digital locker and streaming media services (in particular, Mega Upload and TV Shack) may have been the latest digital media services under fire, but file sharing remains a major issue for copyright holders worldwide. As of…more

The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Bill 2011 has recently been passed by the Australian Senate. It is now before the House of Representatives and is expected to be passed by the House soon. Once the…more

Hitting news headlines worldwide is the story of a popular British pub by the name of The Hobbit, which has apparently been threatened with legal action by Saul Zaentz Company (SZC), on the basis that SZC owns “worldwide rights”…more

Kim Dotcom has the whole world watching him. His interview last week on John Campbell’s show on TV3 is said to be the most watched Campbell Live clip ever. Much of the hype seems to be due to his larger than life personality,…more

Let’s face it, men do tend to get the better deal when it comes to labels. Women are cooks, men are chefs. Women are ball-breakers, men are assertive. But we have one label which we have not assigned a gender bias to,…more

When Steve Jobs unveiled a new tablet computer in January 2010, the Wall Street Journal touted that “the last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it.” It…more

An Order has been made under the Major Events Management Act 2007 ("the Act") which declares the Volvo Ocean Race Auckland Stopover to be a "major event". Accordingly, all protections under the Act will…more

A landmark case which could have major implications for the Australian biotechnology sector was launched last week in the Australian Federal Court against patent holder Myriad Genetics and its Australian licensee, Genetic…more