March 25, 2010
An organized leisure activity session is called a Hoog in Hebrew. the sound H is a gutteral sound made at the back of the throat., as in Hanukkah. This is sometime transliterated as Ch. The vowel is like the u in Chanuckah / Hanukkah and so the word Hoog could also be transliterated at Chug.
Why is the important?
The developers of “Hoogle” or “hoogel” a search engine for extra curricular and leisure activities http://www.hoogel.co.il/ sued a competing site http://www.hug.co.il/ that is accessible via hug.co.il or chug.co.il or hoog.co.il, claiming passing off, unjust enrichment, copyright infringement, etc.
The hoogle website claimed that adverts placed with them were copied by the competing site, and that this was copyright infringement.
Judge Eitan Orenstein dismissed all claims and awarded damages to the defendants, ruling that:
- the name was generic so there was no passing off, cybersquatting or copyright enfringment.
- the sites were similar to each other, but also were similar to other resource directory sites. There were differences, so there was no passing off or misleading.
- Factual data of the type in the listings was not copyright protected.
- None of the features allegedly plagiarized were sufficiently novel to be protectable
Justice Orenstein dismissed the claims and awarded NIS 50,000 costs to the plaintiffs.
case: 1379/06 (Tel Aviv) Hoogle LTD. and others vs. Eran Raviv, Eran and others
Comment
the judge is correct to see freedom of competition as more important than claims of unjust enrichment. Likewise the domain names are indeed generic.
Interestingly, there are hints that the judge saw discrepancies in the defendants version of affairs. It seems that the competing website was inspired by hoogle, but there is no grounds to give hoogle a monopoly.
I think the decision is correct.
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Copyright, Domain Names, Fair Use, Israel Copyright, Israel Court Ruling, passing off | 
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Posted by Michael Factor
January 8, 2010
According to the popular Arab News, following a seminar on Intellectual Property Rights in Saudi Arabia, the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called for the setting up of a special court to look into cases of copyright violations.
It seems that at present copyright violations cases in the Kingdom are dealt with by different parties including the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Customs and the Court of Grievances.
According to Majed Garoub, chairman of the Saudi Legal Center for Training, until now, Saudi authorities has taken action against only some eight thousand out of 100,000 IP complaints.
The most common problem is trademark infringement and domain name problems on the internet. CD related copyright issues are also prevalent. s came second. The seminar has passed resolutions to activate the laws and regulations related to copyright protection.
Based on the success in other countries, Awad Al-Hobaili, legal consultant at the Jeddah chamber believes that a special court to deal with copyright violations would reduce such cases by 80 percent. He is also in favor of patents for technological achievement.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture and Information claims to be addressing the question of copyrights in all aspects of audio-visual artistic production.
We note that where there is a will, such as with Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, the kingdom has been remarkably effective in preventing circulation of boot-leg publications. Nevertheless, we applaud the Saudis on these statements and invite them to join us in regional cooperation to the benefit of all.
Leave a Comment » | Arab IP, Copyright, Domain Names, Intellectual Property, trademarks | Permalink
Posted by Michael Factor
