Serbian Court Jails Copyright Infringer

August 22, 2009

The Municipal Court of Nis, a town in southern Serbia, issued a three-month prison sentence and a nominal fine of approximately $US78 to an individual found to have infringed the Sony PlayStation copyright.

According to the court decision, the infringer sold pirated PlayStation games including Burnout: Revenge, Crash Tag Team Racing, FIFA Street 2, James Bond 007: NightFire, Medal of Honor: European Assault, Rainbow Six, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Resident Evil 4, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Spyro the Dragon.

The infringer also sold the following pirated films: A Little Princess, Aladdin, Cinderella, Happy Feet, Hoodwinked, Madagascar, Monster House, Pinocchio, Shrek, Shrek 2, the Simpsons, Sleeping Beauty, Speed Racer, Spiderman, Stuart Little 2, Thumbelina, Tokyo Godfathers, Tom and Jerry, Wallace and Gromit, The Adventures of Moby Dick, The Little Mermaid, The Mask of Zorro, and The Three Musketeers.

The pirated video games and films were sold for approximately EUR 1 per disc without permission of local authorized distributors.

The pirated items were confiscated and will be destroyed.

For the record, I have a personal interest in the case sinve I am a partner of JMB, Fa(c)tor & Co. which handles the Sony playstation trademarks in Israel.

Leave a Comment » | Copyright, Intellectual Property, News, trademarks | Permalink
Posted by Dr Michael Factor

Merck get’s Injunction preventing Teva from selling patented drug at risk

August 22, 2009

U.S. District Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. of Trenton, New Jersey not only ruled that Teva had failed to show that the patent for Singulair was unenforceable and invalid but apparently declared the drug valid – which was a silly thing to do, as he should have declared the drug not shown to be invalid.

Singulair

The patent covers montelukast, the active ingredient in Singulair, Merck’s best-selling drug for treatment of asthma and allergies. The medicine that had 2008 sales of $4.3 billion. The medicine, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998, is based on research that showed one way to treat the disease is to block leukotrienes, compounds that cause muscle contraction and increase secretions in the lungs.

Merck “put forth sufficient evidence of the failed attempts of others to develop a leukotriene antagonist,” Brown said in his opinion. Thus it appears that the non-obviousness of the approach was, according to the judge, based on secondary considerations such as long-felt need.  

Concurrently, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is reexamining the patent. Although the patent remains valid during reexamination proceedings, it is not clear that the patent will survive the scrutiny. If it does survive reexamination, the ruling will prevent Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (israel) from selling a generic version of the drug until August 2012.  If it doesn’t, Brown will realize that he was wrong for declaring a patent valid.

The case is Merck Sharp & Dohme Pharmaceuticals SRL v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, 07cv1596, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey (Trenton).

Leave a Comment » | Intellectual Property, Teva, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology | Permalink
Posted by Dr Michael Factor