The Trade Mark, Other Product Designations, and Goodwill

Author(s):  
Justine Pila

This chapter considers the meaning of the terms that appropriately denote the subject matter protectable by registered trade mark and allied rights, including the common law action of passing off. Drawing on the earlier analyses of the objects protectable by patent and copyright, it defines the trade mark, designation of origin, and geographical indication in their current European and UK conception as hybrid inventions/works in the form of purpose-limited expressive objects. It also considers the relationship between the different requirements for trade mark and allied rights protection, and related principles of entitlement. In its conclusion, the legal understandings of trade mark and allied rights subject matter are presented as answers to the questions identified in Chapter 3 concerning the categories and essential properties of the subject matter in question, their method of individuation, and the relationship between and method of establishing their and their tokens’ existence.

Author(s):  
Justine Pila

This book offers a study of the subject matter protected by each of the main intellectual property (IP) regimes. With a focus on European and UK law particularly, it considers the meaning of the terms used to denote the objects to which IP rights attach, such as ‘invention’, ‘authorial work’, ‘trade mark’, and ‘design’, with reference to the practice of legal officials and the nature of those objects specifically. To that end it proceeds in three stages. At the first stage, in Chapter 2, the nature, aims, and values of IP rights and systems are considered. As historically and currently conceived, IP rights are limited (and generally transferable) exclusionary rights that attach to certain intellectual creations, broadly conceived, and that serve a range of instrumentalist and deontological ends. At the second stage, in Chapter 3, a theoretical framework for thinking about IP subject matter is proposed with the assistance of certain devices from philosophy. That framework supports a paradigmatic conception of the objects protected by IP rights as artifact types distinguished by their properties and categorized accordingly. From this framework, four questions are derived concerning: the nature of the (categories of) subject matter denoted by the terms ‘invention’, ‘authorial work’, ‘trade mark’, ‘design’ etc, including their essential properties; the means by which each subject matter is individuated within the relevant IP regime; the relationship between each subject matter and its concrete instances; and the manner in which the existence of a subject matter and its concrete instances is known. That leaves the book’s final stage, in Chapters 3 to 7. Here legal officials’ use of the terms above, and understanding of the objects that they denote, are studied, and the results presented as answers to the four questions identified previously.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
JE Penner

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter traces the historical roots of the trust. The law of trusts is the offspring of a certain English legal creature known as ‘equity’. Equity arose out of the administrative power of the medieval Chancellor, who was at the time the King’s most powerful minister. The nature of equity’s jurisdiction and its ability to provide remedies unavailable at common law, the relationship between equity and the common law and the ‘fusion’ of law and equity, and equity’s creation of the use, and then the trust, are discussed.


Author(s):  
Justine Pila

This chapter seeks to define the terms ‘invention’ and ‘plant variety’ as used by European and UK legal officials particularly. To that end, the nature of the objects identified by the legislature and courts as inventions and plant varieties is considered, as well as the nature of the objects excluded from protection, whether with reference to the requirement for an invention or plant variety or on other statutory grounds. The chapter also considers the law governing patent and plant variety right entitlement, and its implications for legal conceptions of the invention and plant variety. In its conclusion, the legal understandings of inventions and plant varieties are presented as answers to the questions identified in Chapter 3 concerning the categories and essential properties of the subject matter in question, their method of individuation, and the relationship between and method of establishing the existence of each individual subject matter and its tokens.


Author(s):  
Simon Deakin ◽  
Zoe Adams

Defamation, a tort that protects a claimant’s reputation, has been the subject of much debate in recent years, culminating in the passing of the Defamation Act in 2013. A tort of historic origin, defamation raises novel challenges in an age of internet and digital communication technology, particularly given increasing concerns about freedom of expression, and the protection of privacy. Like many aspects of the law discussed in this book, moreover, defamation has not been left untouched by human rights developments. The chapter begins with an introduction to defamation, covering the meaning of ‘defamatory’ and libel and slander. It then discusses elements of liability, both in the common law, and under the Defamation Act 2013; defences; damages; mitigation of damage; and injurious falsehoods and passing off.


Author(s):  
Paul Torremans

This chapter discusses the ways in which the common law, in the form of the law of tort, creates rights of action. It focuses on the torts of passing off and malicious falsehood, although attention is also paid to the ways in which defamation can assist. These rights are supplementary, and complementary, to the statutory formal rights. In particular, trade mark law and passing off closely overlap, although s. 2(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 preserves passing off as a separate cause of action.


2019 ◽  
pp. 231-249
Author(s):  
Stavroula Karapapa ◽  
Luke McDonagh

This chapter discusses the registration of trade marks. Unlike passing off protection that is not subject to formalities, trade marks ought to be registered in order to receive legal protection. Whether a trade mark is capable of registration depends on three requirements. First, whether the subject matter of the application satisfies the definition of ‘trade mark’ in s. 1 of the Trade Marks Act 1994; second, whether there are any objections to the application under the absolute grounds for refusal in s. 3; and third, whether there are any prior rights which could prevent registration under the relative grounds for refusal in s. 5. The chapter then presents an outline of the registration procedure. In essence, the procedure can be broken down into six steps: application and filing of Form TM3; examination; search and notification of prior rights; publication and notification to owner(s) of prior rights; opposition; and registration.


1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Richard Naughton

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission is under a statutorily imposed duty to act in afair manner, but with minimum resort to technical legal form. In addition, it is required to act promptly and effectively to prevent and settle industrial disputes. Some interesting questions arise concerning the relationship between this duty to act fairly and the common law principles of natural justice. This review of the subject area concludes that the two central natural justice principles (the right to a hearing and the rule against bias) are applied in a flexible manner in commission proceedings. The federal tribunal is often required to balance the strict application of these principles against a series of other factors. These might include, for example, matters like the expense, inevitable delay and procedural difficulties associated with a slavish adherence to the rules of natural justice.


1983 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. Helmholz

The history of criminal law has claimed an increasing share of the attention of legal and social historians in recent years. Undeterred by Professor Milsom's verdict that in the area of English criminal law, ‘nothing worthwhile was created,’ historians have plunged into the study of doctrine and practice in the common law courts. The attractions of the source material are undoubtedly great. The law is relatively straightforward, at least compared to land litigation. The cases are interesting and sometimes sensational. The subject matter promises rewards in understanding the relationship between social change and legal development. And the study may even be immediately relevant, shedding light on current law enforcement problems.


Author(s):  
Justine Pila

This chapter defines the terms used to denote the subject matter protectable by European and UK registered and unregistered design right with reference to legal officials’ understanding of each type of subject matter. Starting from a recognition of the intersection of the design right and other intellectual property regimes, the chapter considers several aspects of design law before concluding that designs are authorial works within the meaning of European or traditional UK copyright authorities, albeit with a different history of production than that traditionally required of such works by UK legal officials. The chapter concludes with a summary of the categories and essential properties of registered and unregistered designs, an account of legal officials’ methods for individuating them, and a discussion of the relationship between legal officials’ methods of establishing the existence of individual registered and unregistered designs and their tokens respectively.


2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Zines

This article originally was published as a Law and Policy Paper. The Law and Policy Papers series was established in 1994 by the Centre for International and Public Law in the Faculty of Law, the Australian National University. The series publishes papers contributing to understanding and discussion on matters relating to law and public policy, especially those that are the subject of contemporary debate. In 1999 the papers were published jointly by the Centre for International and Public Law and The Federation Press. This article is reproduced in the Federal Law Review with the permission of the original publishers.


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