Jerusalem Colony LTD is attempting to have trademark registration no. 79292 for Colony, owned by American Colony of Jerusalem LTD. ammended. The Arbitrator of IP, Noach Shalev Shmulovich will be conducting a hearing on the matter on 27 May 2009. In the meantime, the trademark owner has filed a licensing request to license the mark to Morobatti, a third party. Ms Shoshani Caspi, new IP arbitrator at the Israel Patent and Trademark Office has ruled that licensing registration should be suspended until the main hearing regarding the mark.
The decision is not, per se., a bad one, but one wonders if it wasn’t more work to explain why in the circumstances it was acceptable to suspend the decision, instead of ruling, with a disclaimer that the license would be subject to the decision regarding the mark, and could not affect that decision. One also wonders why, with two IP arbitrators appart from the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks himself, one of them, i.e. Ms Shoshani Caspi should rule on a proceeding where the other, Mr Noach Shalev Shmulovich, is ruling on the main issue. It seems unlikely that this is the best use of limited resources.
