From the Vietnam Economic Times:

SAMSING-VINA, [was] crowned the top trademark in Vietnam by the international market research institute GFK at a ceremony in HCM City.

Samsung colour computer screens and computer LCDs were also awarded the title.

According to the survey by German analysts GFK, Samsung holds 22% of the colour TV market in Vietnam, 33% of the colour monitor market, and 39% for LCD monitors, outstripping all other rivals.

Text of approved Family Entertainment and Copyright Act here.

EFF discussion of bill here.

MPAA press release on new law here.

The Clearplay DVD playback device, which edits out objectionable material, is now clearly lawful as a result of a provision summarized here:

Title II: Exemption from Infringement for Skipping Audio and Video Content In Motion Pictures – Family Movie Act of 2005 – (Sec. 202) Creates an exemption from copyright infringement for: (1) the making imperceptible, by or at the direction of a private household, of limited portions of audio or video content of a motion picture during a performance in or transmitted to that household for private home viewing from an authorized copy of the motion picture; or (2) the creation or provision of technology that enables such editing, is designed and marketed for such use, creates no fixed copy of the altered version, and makes no changes, deletions or additions to commercial advertisements or promotional announcements that would otherwise be performed or displayed.

Amends the Trademark Act of 1946 to protect from liability for trademark infringement: (1) persons who engage in the above-referenced conduct; and (2) manufacturers of technology that enables such editing if notice is provided that the performance of the movie is altered from the director’s or copyright holder’s intended performance.

Clearplay device available here.

 

Wall Street Journal article today, page W1, on undisclosed endorsement deals by chefs.  One chef gets paid $10,000 a year from the Alaskan Seafood Marketing Institute, to use the word Alaskan to describe his king-crab dishes.  One chef gets free veal to make his “Bronx style filet mignon.”

Hint to trademark search firms and other trademark service vendors.  I’ll be at INTA. 

Filing for a Community Trademark has always included a gamble.  The costs for obtaining a CTM are lower than filing in the separate national jursidictions.  However a CTM is all or nothing – you cannot be successfully opposed in any CTM jurisdiction – there is no such thing as a partial CTM.  If you are successfully opposed in one or more jurisdictions, your CTM is ‘broken’ and you must re-file your surviving ‘shards’ in those countries’ national trademark office.  This is an expensive debacle.  This is also potentially an argument for using the Madrid system instead.

The most recently reported instant of a broken CTM is that of RUFFLES for Pepsico, which will lost the chance for a CTM based on a German company’s rights in RIFFELs for potato chips.  This article suggests that this opposition is based on Pepsico’s 1996 application (CTMs went live in 1996).

Community Trademark FAQs here.