Founded in 1916, the Toy Association is representing companies that design, produce, license and distribute toys and entertainment products for youth. It has more than 950 members, including Amazon. The Toy Association defends the interests of its members, including the toy safety and brand protection of its members. In this regard, the association has just…
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan plans to strengthen the fight against counterfeit dairy products (trend.az, 25 Jan. 2019). China Hong Kong Customs seized counterfeit garments with a market value of $ 2.5 million after a week-long operation (Champion, Tommy Hilfiger, and Stussy). Nine people were arrested (insideretail.hk, 11 Jan. 2019). Shanghai police dismantled a group of 36 people…
On January 31, 2019, Amazon delivered its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After referring to a possible amendment of the US law on the liability of Internet intermediaries, Amazon acknowledged that it could be held liable for the activity of its users, particularly for counterfeiting: “The law relating to the liability…
Join us at the webinar “Fighting online counterfeits: a China and India 2018 case law review”, Monday, February 18, 2019, 09:30 AM Europe/Paris. China and India have 650 and 475 million Internet users respectively. Although the part of e-commerce in the economy is relatively small, the growth curves are prodigious. Unsurprisingly, this trend comes with…
With 800 million Internet users, China is the largest market. It is imperative to file its trademarks in China and register domain names aimed at the Chinese market at the same time as the brand is created. Trademarks and domain names must be matched as twins both in the country of origin and in foreign…
Back in 2016, IP Twins released a communication on the increase of cybersquatting of trademark applications before the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Indeed, EUIPO currently publishes trademark applications as soon as they are filed. Cybersquatters only have to scan the EUIPO website for new application and automatically register the corresponding .COM domains in seconds,…
IP Twins will be in Kobe, Japan, at the ICANN 64 meeting, which will be held from March 9-14, 2019. This is an opportunity to spotlight the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese ecosystem of domain names is at the forefront. At the beginning of 2018, the number of .JP domain names exceeded 1.5 million,…
EURid, the .EU registry, has timed out two scenarios: in case of a no deal (Scenario 1) and in the event of an agreement between Great Britain and the European Union (Scenario 2). The latter would not start before 31 December 2020. The political context gives Scenario 1 an urgency that requires vigilance and anticipation….
Read the update: “.EU: Brexit calendar in the case of a no deal scenario. Our advices”, iptwins.com, 28 January 2019 The massive rejection of the Brexit draft agreement by the British parliament is embarrassing many British companies. The issue of eligibility for certain top-level domains is one of many others. When the United Kingdom (UK)…
To answer to growing concerns raised by the “Yellow Vests” movement, the French government launched a national debate on a vast number of topics. A website was also launched to set up events, list them and participate, under the domain name granddebat.fr (“great debate”). The domain was registered by the National Public Debate Commission on…
No, Air France or Futuroscope do not offer free tickets via the WhatsApp phone application. Last weekend, many users of the application have received fraudulent messages appearing to come from these companies. The catch is the same: “Air France offers free tickets to all to celebrate his birthday” or “Futuroscope giving 5 free tickets to 500…
In the United States, given the “shutdown”, the US administration did not consider the renewal of SSL certificates (Secure Socket Layer) as a priority. As a result, many government sites (defined by the .GOV top-level domain) are no longer accessible. This is particularly the case of several sites of the judicial administration. SSL certificates secure communications between…
Originally scheduled for January 16, 2019, the launch of .INC is postponed until March 27, 2019. Eligibility “to be eligible to submit a Registration Request in the Sunrise Period, a Sunrise Applicant must be the registrant of a corresponding TMCH entry and the domain name sought must correspond to the entire eligible text of one…
Our Online Brand Protection service reports a new large-scale attack on the electronic documents transfer specialist WeTransfer. We have identified that emails similar to those of WeTransfer are currently being mass-mailed, with a download link very similar to the URLs used by WeTransfer: The attack works in a very simple way: hackers simply registered the…
Google Registry recently announced the upcoming availability of the .DEV top-level domain. 1 Sunrise Period: January 16, 2019 – February 19, 2019 Sunrise period where trademark holders who have submitted their trademark to the Trademark Clearinghouse can register .dev domains. Sunrise for .dev. This means if you are a trademark owner and your trademark has been submitted…
IMPORTANT: Originally scheduled for January 16, 2019, the launch of .INC is postponed until March 27, 2019. See the updated calendar here. Eligibility “to be eligible to submit a Registration Request in the Sunrise Period, a Sunrise Applicant must be the registrant of a corresponding TMCH entry and the domain name sought must correspond to…
Argentina FMC QUIMICA S.A. has reported having detected in Santa Fe, Córdoba and Salta counterfeit of its insecticide “Coragen” (agrofy.com.ar, 12 Dec. 2018). Australia Toyota counterfeit auto parts have been seized, including brake pads that do not meet the safety requirements. A Toyota employee said: “If you buy online and it’s not from an authorized…
The Chinese parliament is considering a law that would allow punitive damages in tort cases. This long-awaited bill specifically targets infringements of intellectual property rights. If an intellectual property right is intentionally violated and the circumstances are considered “serious”, the owner of the intellectual property rights will be in a position to claim punitive damages….
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison presumably failed to renew the domain name of his personal website scottmorrison.com.au. A few hours after its expiration, this domain name was registered by a third party who uploaded an ironic content on the webpage associated with the domain name. Indeed, visitors could listen to Scotty Doesn’t Know, the title of…
Since the 1st of December, a new procedure has been implemented in partnership by the Belgian Registry DNS Belgium and the Federal Public Service Economy (FPS Economy). This procedure allows FPS Economy to seek the deactivation of a .be domain name used in relation to fraudulent websites or Phishing activities. According to the procedure set…
