Asian applications- an analysis

APAA, the Asian Patent Attorneys Association, held their Design Committee meeting in Jeju, Korea on 17th October under the joint chairmanship of Minako Mizuno and Peter Heathcote.  The meeting concentrated on practical issues of what can be filed as a design, and included whether:

• designs are available for separate component parts of products,
• designs are available for integral parts of products,
• designs are available for icons,
• multiple designs are available,
• sets are available,
• dashed lines can be used,
• statements of novelty are required.

 You can find the extremely detailed sets of responses from the official groups of Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam on APAA's 2010 website here. 

Burberry keeps HK competitors in check

The attention of Class 99 has been drawn to a registered design revocation application (here) concerning the Burberry Check in Hong Kong, decided last month by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Court of First Instance. In legal terms there's not a lot exciting about the decision, in which Burberry Asia secures the revocation of three designs for lack of novelty in just 25 short paragraphs.

What's interesting is that the proprietor of the revoked design, Polo Santa Roberta, which started out a few years ago as a rather downmarket sort of shop in Hong Kong (see IP Dragon here). Nevertheless, it has stepped up its image and held itself out as a reputable UK brand by advertisement (its advertisements have been sighted in Marie Claire Hong Kong) and it has now opened new specialty shops in the territory. Their bags, I am told, can be spotted in use almost everywhere there.

Thanks are due to Sarah Li for supplying this information.