WIPO published its Global Innovation Index for 2019. Switzerland was ranked as the most innovative nation in the world followed by Sweden and the US. The rest of the countries in the top 10 are Nederland, Finland, the UK, Singapour, Germany, Denmark, and Israel.
Bulgaria is ranked 40 which is three places behind the last year’s position. More data for the country can be found here.
More information regarding this index you can found here.
WIPO reports about new individual fees payable for designation of Denmark in international applications for trademarks. These fees, which will come into force on 01.07.2019, are as follow:
WIPO reports about the accession of Malawi to the Madrid Protocol for international registration of trademarks. In that way, the participating Member States become 102.
Registration of international marks for the country will take up to 18 months, the period when a refusal can be issued. Apart from this, any trademark license in order to be valid on the territory of Malawi has to be registered in the local Patent Office.
The Protocol will come into force for the country on 25.12.2018.
More information here.
The UK football club Aston Villa lost an opposition against the following trademark that was applied for classes 12, 25, 35:
Against this mark Aston Villa evoked its following earlier mark in class 25:
According to the Japan Patent Office, both signs are not confusingly similar because the earlier mark includes the abbreviation AVFC besides the lion depiction. Furthermore, the lion character is widely used in heraldic which leads to lower distinctive power. On top of that, there are some differences between the lion depictions themselves.
Source: Masaki MIKAMI
WIPO published the 4th issue of the WIPO Magazine, where you can find the following:
For more information here.
