The US has been one of the few jurisdictions which allow methods or ways of doing things to be registered for patent protection. This type of patent might be narrowed significantly by a recent ruling by a US Appellate Court. We will all be keeping a watch out for the final decision, given that many [...]
Posts under ‘patents’
Tate & Lyle Lose Splenda Patent
In a surprise decision in the US, the makers of Splenda have lost their patent for sucralose which is the generic name for Splenda. This means that competitors can now sell the same sugar substitute. At the moment Splenda brings in 25% of Tate & Lyle’s profit. Although they are probably not happy about the [...]
Facebook Dispute
Aaron Greenspan’s continuing dispute with Facebook owner, Mark Zuckerberg has taken the form of a petition to cancel Facebook’s trademark registration in the USA mentioned here. The origins of the dispute lay in Greenspan ’s claims to have had the original idea for the social networking company. Two interesting points arise from this – firstly [...]
Unjustified Threats
One challenging aspect of advising small businesses is the vagueness of the law. It is difficult to give the clear, black and white answers business people need. One client recently asked me what letters we would be able to send out to enforce her design or trade mark rights if she registered them. She even [...]
