December 2021 - Blog | Trademarkmaldives

Buick Files Trademark Application for ‘Electra’ in Canada & The US

Buick, a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM), has recently filed a Trademark Application for ‘Electra’ with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), dated 20^th December 2021. Electra is a name familiar under the Buick brand label. The application for the same is filed under the “Motor Land Vehicles, Namely, Automobiles.”

It was at Auto Shanghai (officially called the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition) last year when the automaker disclosed the concept of the Electra electric crossover. It was intended to display Buick’s brand new, minimalistic language and design, along with its electrified underpinnings. With the filing of this trademark application, there are a lot of many speculations and expectations for the American carmaker bringing over the concept into the United States, perhaps possibly in production form.

It is imperative to note in this case that Buick already filed a trademark application for ‘Electra’ back in 2012. The company held the trademark application till 2014 till the USPTO invalidated the same as neither the ‘Statement of Use’ nor the request for the ‘Extension’ was filed timely after the Notice of Allowance was issued. So, with this new trademark application, it seems as if Buick is moving ahead with the name of its upcoming electric vehicle.

The Buick Electra concept revealed in China blends the looks of a sleek GT car with a four-seat crossover. The concept’s prime highlights and features include 23-inch wheels, illuminated Buick badge, thin-slit headlights, and butterfly doors; however, as per the rumors, not all these elements would reach the production stage, if at all.

The Buick Electra AWD (All-Wheel Drive) came with 02 electric motors putting out 583 horsepower (428.796 kilowatts). It is powered and supported by Ultium batteries that enable up to 372 miles, i.e., 598.676 kilometers of range.

Electra will be sharing its platform with the Cadillac Lyriq (battery-electric crossover). It uses only a single electric motor on the rear axle to produce a power of 254 kW (340 hp) and a torque of 325 lb-ft (440 Nm). With a single charge of its 100 kWh battery, it can reach over 300 miles (482.803 km). The Lyriq Performance AWD is anticipated to offer better numbers, which could be pretty close to what the Electra has promised in its concept form. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Samsung Files Patent for Hybrid Smartphone Design Capable of Folding & Sliding

As per various recent reports, the South Korean multinational corporation – Samsung is presently working on a hybrid smartphone design that can both roll and fold. The tech giant has filed a Patent Application for the same with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and it dates back to this year in June. The new hybrid smartphone design comprises both folding and rolling mechanisms. Samsung is already manufacturing foldable smartphones like Galaxy Z Flip3 and Fold3, both of which are readily available in the market. However, the corporation has not yet come up with a rollable smartphone.

Although many other companies and tech giants, in particular, have filed patent applications for rollable and foldable smartphones, Samsung is the first to file a patent application for a smartphone that is both rollable and foldable at the same time. As per the pictures that were spotted in the publication, the patent application depicts a smartphone with a rollable screen. What seems like is the smartphone is designed to roll out first and then fold in half.

According to what’s specified in the patent application, the design of this hybrid smartphone is defined as an electronic device that could conveniently carry out folding and sliding operations. The display screen can conveniently be slid to increase the size and folded at an angle. For making such a design functional, the smartphone shall consist of a hinge, used for folding, and a motor, used for sliding. These two mechanisms already exist individually in other smartphones available in the market. Along with this new patent, the tech giant is rumored to come up with its Flip4 and Fold4 devices during the third quarter of next year.

Currently, Samsung is one of the few companies that hold expertise in manufacturing fully-functional, real-life foldable smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 and Fold3 are considered the best-selling foldable smartphones across the globe. For manufacturing a smartphone with folding capabilities, the tech giant had to experiment a lot with different display materials and types. It did struggle to a great extent initially as its Galaxy Fold didn’t have a stable design, but now the company has improved immensely in this aspect.

Also, Samsung might be looking forward to incorporating curved screen technology into its smartwatches. The tech giant filed a new patent application this year on 2^nd June with WIPO, covering the design of a smartwatch with a camera and rollable display. The application consists of 96 pages full of information and design plans for a rollable smartwatch. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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USPTO Proposes Electronic Patent Issuance to Speed Up the Process

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently in its Federal Register published a public rulemaking notice proposing that it wants to stop the mailing of issued patents to the inventors.

As part of this proposed change, the USPTO would issue all patents electronically using its patent document viewing systems, i.e., Patent Center and Patent Application Image Retrieval (PAIR). According to the notice, patents would go paperless, i.e., no longer issued on paper. Consequently, patents would no longer be mailed to any address of record submitted during the patent issuance process.

The USPTO said in a recent statement delivered that this proposed change, done via a digital seal, will shave two weeks off the time to patent issuance.

The notice reads that once the patent number and issuance date are assigned, electronic patent publication would lead to electronic patent issuance under the USPTO seal and along with the Director’s signature within only one week, in place of three weeks. It further mentions that by putting an end to the assembling, printing, and mailing of a paper patent upon its issuance, the USPTO would conveniently reduce the pendency of every issued patent application by roughly two weeks. In this way, the patent applicants and the public at large would undoubtedly benefit from the time saved. Additionally, the notice states that the patentees would easily be able to view and print their electronically issued patents, along with their cover sheets, via the USPTO’s patent document viewing systems, instead of waiting for their paper patent to arrive in their mail.

As per the public stats put forward by the USPTO, the office issued 388,900 patents last year, out of which 352,049 were 20-year utility patents.

The public is most welcome to comment on the proposed change by 14^th February 2022.

No rule change as of now would be required to implement similar changes to Trademark Registration certificates; however, the USPTO still looks forward to soliciting public feedback concerning its proposal to replace paper trademark registration certificates with digital versions. Presently, the USPTO issues 6,000 to 9,000 printed trademark registration certificates every week; therefore, the change would significantly reduce the paper processing and associated costs.

The notice also states that stakeholders who still may want the paper ‘presentation copies’ of their issued patents and trademark registration certificates can get the same with an embossed gold seal and the Director’s signature in exchange for a nominal fee of $25 per copy. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Big Win for Farmers – India Revokes Patent Rights for PepsiCo Inc’s Lay’s Potato Chips

It was two years ago when PepsiCo India had provoked outrage by suing nine farmers from Gujarat for allegedly infringing upon the Patent Rights by growing its registered potato variety, and now, recently, the company’s registration has been revoked by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights’ Authority (PPV&FRA).

The Convener at the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, Kavitha Kuruganti, said this judgment is undoubtedly a historic win for the Indian farmers. She further added that the judgment would prevent any other food or seed corporation from misbehaving with the legally granted farmers’ seed freedom in India. Ms. Kuruganti had filed the petition to revoke PepsiCo’s registration.

PepsiCo did review this recent judgment but declined to give any further comments.

The PPV&FRA questioned the documents submitted by PepsiCo, which claimed that the food giant was the owner of the potato variety and could therefore be considered the registered breeder under the law. The Authority accepted Ms. Kuruganti’s contention, according to which many farmers were put to hardship in this case, along with the threatening possibility of having to pay an enormous penalty on the purported instance of infringement they were supposed to have been committing. As per the order issued by K.V. Prabhu (the Chairperson at PPV&FRA), the same violates public interest.

Used in Lay’s potato chips, the FL-2027 variety of potatoes came into the limelight two years ago in April when it became the center of interest in the David v. Goliath dispute in the potato belt of northern Gujarat. It was 2009 when the potato variety was introduced in India. It was grown by somewhere around 12,000 farmers, with whom PepsiCo had an exclusive agreement corresponding to selling the seeds and buying back the produce. In 2016, PepsiCo registered the potato variety under the PPV&FR Act, 2001.

According to PepsiCo’s infringement lawsuit filed under the Act against nine farmers in Gujarat, including a Rs 4.2 crore lawsuit filed against four small farmers, many farmers who were not involved in the ‘collaborative farming program’ were also growing and selling this variety in the state.

Amidst the critical election season, boycott threats and widespread protests by different political and farmers’ groups forced the government of Gujarat to intervene, thereby pushing PepsiCo to withdraw all cases in May 2019. In the same year, in June, Ms. Kuruganti had then applied to revoke the food giant’s registration.

Shalini Bhutani (a legal researcher and agriculture Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) expert) saluted the judgment as a precedent. She said that the Authority’s acceptance of Ms. Kuruganti’s revocation application (including the grounds of the same being against the public interest) sends an important signal concerning the aspect that farmers’ rights cannot be taken lightly by the IP rights holders in the country.

Kapil Shah, a member of the Kisan Beej Adhikar Manch and one of the activists who spearheaded the initial protests in Gujarat, said in a recent statement delivered that both the Authority and the Government do have a responsibility to make all registrants and applicants under the PPV&FR Act understand well that their rights do not supersede the farmers’ rights. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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EdTech Company upGrad Sues Scaler Alleging Trademark Infringement

EdTech firm, upGrad, has recently filed a Trademark Infringement lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against its fellow EdTech company called Scaler. According to upGrad, Scaler has violated the Intellectual Property (IP) related to its trademark. The company has now sought damages worth more than rupees three crores.

upGrad has accused Scaler of illegally using its business/brand name, i.e., ‘upGrad,’ on Google Ads to appear on top of the search results on Google, thereby gaining illicit benefits.

As per a recent press statement issued, the Delhi High Court, in this case, has granted an ad-interim injunction in upGrad’s favor. Also, until further notice, the Court has ordered Scaler not to bid on the Registered Trademarks (or any other variants) owned by upGrad using Google Ads or any other keyword program.

The CEO (India) at upGrad, Arjun Mohan, said in a recent statement that the lawsuit filed would ensure the protection of upGrad’s IP and trademarks and would also discourage unauthorized and unlawful usage in the future. He further said that upGrad has undoubtedly made considerable investments in building its brand name, which makes it even more essential for them to safeguard their rights. He also mentioned that the team at upGrad is looking forward to evaluating and filing trademark infringement lawsuits against other EdTech firms involved in similar Google Ads bidding activity.

Quite recently, the Delhi High Court, in a similar Google Ads lawsuit, granted an interim injunction in favor of MakeMyTrip (an Indian online travel company headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana) and against its competitor, HappyEasyGo (an online platform that caters to act as a one-stop solution for travel needs). In the same lawsuit and as part of the recent orders passed, the Court also directed Google to suspend/block the Google Ads account owned by HappyEasyGo.

In another lawsuit filed on similar grounds by DRS Logistics (one of the most trusted names in India in the field of logistics and transport), the Delhi High Court said that Google could never really exonerate itself from the liability of ensuring that a specific keyword doesn’t infringe upon a registered trademark. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com