I-Bhd sells iHome trademark

Property developer I-Bhd has entered into a deal to sell its “iHome” trademark in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei and China for RM1.8mil cash to Hong Kong-based iHome Asian Trademark Holdings Co Ltd.

The company said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia that the sale of the trademark was in line with the group's focus in property development following its cessation of the home appliances business. - StarBiz

IP involved in Euro 2012

European soccer’s most coveted trophy is protected in various ways, by copyright law, and variously through the European Community Trademark System (CTM 007463821) including in 3D (CTM 8860025) and the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks (IR 1020340). The trophy is also protected as a registered design (RCD 635750-33-34).

The registration and defense of marks is at the heart of UEFA’s IP protection strategy. As the holder of registered marks, UEFA is in a position to guarantee exclusive licensing rights to the commercial partners associated with its competitions. Such protection is often enshrined in a contract.

In the absence of special legislation, the protection afforded by trademark/service mark law remains the best way to combat the many infringements of the commercial rights linked to major sports competitions. The registration of a mark is often key to obtaining the support of the national authorities (in particular customs authorities, the police and trading and standards agencies) responsible for tackling infringing activities.

Marks for sporting events are unlike other well-known marks in that they have a very short shelf life. Those linked with the UEFA European Football Championship, for example, are specially created for the competition held in a particular year. This can be a challenge given the fact that registration procedures in some countries are not always adapted to the competition cycle. In this respect, the WIPO Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks is very useful as it guarantees the registration of events marks within 18 months, whereas in certain countries that are not part of the Madrid system, registration can take much longer. As these events are world renowned, the associated marks are registered not only in the host countries and all those taking part in the tournament, but also at the global level. The marks are also registered in almost all classes of goods and services to cover those offered by UEFA’s official partners.

The main designations linked to this year’s championship, namely, UEFA EURO 2012 and POLAND UKRAINE 2012 are, along with their local equivalents, protected as word marks, as are the different language versions of the official slogan “Creating History Together”. UEFA has also sought to protect the figurative elements of the UEFA EURO 2012 emblem, mascots and trophy. These official marks are widely protected through trademark or service mark registration, copyright and other IP laws. - WIPO Magazine

2012 National Intellectual Property Day will be held in Sultan Ahmad Shah International Convention Centre (SASICC), Kuantan. Intellectual Property Day is an initiative by the government to promote and increase awareness of intellectual property. There will be sixty organizations participating the event on 27 & 28 April 2012. Malaysian Intellectual Property Association (MIPA) is invited to be part of the event. There are various activities organized for the public.

27 & 28 April 2012, IP Exhibition, Exhibition Hall 1

28 April 2012
9 am National IP Day Award, Ballroom (by invitation)
2 pm Public Seminar on Copyright, Silk Hall
2 pm Public Seminar on Trademark, Cashmere Hall
2.30 pm Retro Star Competition, Exhibition Hall 1
8.30 pm Intellectual Property Concert, Padang Taman Kemunting

The latest amendment on Copyright Act and Regulations may be presented during the public seminar. For more information, visit MyIPO.

223 Trademarks, 24 Patent Applications Received Under Expedited Examination Process

The Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) received 223 applications for trademarks and 24 for patents and utility renewals under the expedited examination process introduced last Feb 15.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the initiative was well received as it facilitated the registration process.

The registration period for patents normally takes 26 months but under the expedited examination, it only takes 20 months while for trademark registration, which usually takes 12 months, it can now be done in less than seven months. "However, these are only for applications which are in order and without any objection being raised by the registrar," he told reporters after attending the 2011 MyIPO Excellent Service Award here.

Ismail Sabri said MyIPO received 28,833 trademark applications, including 15,832 from foreign parties last year, up from 26,370 applications during the previous year.

A total of 6,559 applications for patents and utility renewals were received last year compared to 6,464 the year before.

MyIPO also received 1,871 applications for industrial design registrations and seven applications for geographical indication products last year compared to 940 and five applications respectively in 2010.

Although the figure might seem huge, he said, the awareness among entrepreneurs to register their products for patents and trademarks was still low and in some cases, applications from foreigners far outnumbered those from the locals. -Bernama

Amendments to Copyright Act to come into force by April

New regulations following the amendment of the Copyright Act 1987 last year, which include a wider jurisdiction for the Copyright Tribunal, are expected to be submitted to the Attorney-General for implementation from April.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the ministry and the national creative industry players would be holding their last meeting to finalise the regulations at the end of this month before submitting it to the Attorney-General.

Among the new regulations to be enforced included a system of voluntary registration of copyright works and the registration of a royalty collection body, he told reporters after holding the second meeting with the national creative industry players on the issues of the new regulations at the office of Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) here Wednesday.

"The new regulations of the Copyright Tribunal should involve expanding the jurisdiction of the tribunal on matters relating to payment of royalties to artistes.

"The tribunal should be expanded to ensure the individual responsible for collecting royalty should be transparent apart from informing the artistes concerned on their work used," he said.

Among the arts industry player representatives present were Persatuan Karyawan Malaysia, Persatuan Penulis Skrin Malaysia, Persatuan Penerbit Filem Malaysia as well as local actors and singers. - Bernama

Tan: How I made money from Facebook

Friendster was among the first social networking websites. It preceded MySpace and Facebook. Starting operations in 2003, Friendster found the going tough and lost money for years.

The company continued to raise but spent money aggressively. In running up losses, Friendster had, nonetheless, built up a base of 140 million registered users, of which 40 million were active.

Vincent Tan said the losses then stemmed from Friendster not monetising its user base. Finding it hard to make money from its users, it was losing an average of US$10mil a year.

Eventually, the patience of the owners and investors in Friendster wore thin and they wanted to exit the business. Friendster then called for a process to sell the business and now Friendster CEO, Ganesh Kumar Bangah, who was then working with Tan, informed him that Friendster was for sale.

“I asked for the numbers and found that 140 million registered users and 40 million active users was interesting. If we could make them spend some money, maybe Friendster would be a good investment. Of course, the downside was the business will continue to lose US$10mil a year,” he said.

Vincent Tan said the owners of Friendster initially wanted US$100mil for the business but with losses mounting, he knew no one would pay that much for the company. “At that time, Facebook wanted to buy Friendster’s patents but Facebook was willing to pay US$10mil cash and later increased it to US$20mil cash.”

Tan was made to understand then that the owners felt that taking US$20mil only to lose US$10mil a year will soon see that cash vanish and then decided to accept US$40mil for Friendster but wanted a quick sale. “They gave the potential buyers about a week to decide. Many people were looking, including large firms from China and Japan, at Friendster.

“They were much larger than MOL but with the owners of Friendster needing a fast sale, I told Ganesh to do a quick due diligence on Friendster.

“We took two days for the due diligence and made a bid. We said since Friendster owed people US$2mil, we offered US$38mil.

“With other potential buyers doing their due diligence, I told them that if they accepted US$38mil, we will do the deal right away. They accepted our proposal,” said Tan.

After buying Friendster in 2008, Tan then turned his attention to Facebook, which remained interested in Friendster’s patents and whose offer of US$20mil cash for the technology rights was still on the table. “We had a conference call with the people at Facebook. I accepted their price but I wanted shares.”

Facebook officials told him that Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, did not want to dilute the shares in the company but Tan stood firm and said “if there was no shares, forget it”.

Tan insisted on getting shares in Facebook because he felt the company will be big in the future. Finally, Zuckerberg agreed to a share exchange for the patents and Tan got his 700,000 shares. His shares have grown to 3.5 million following a 5-for-1 split in Facebook’s shares before the IPO process. - StarBiz

Facebook Acquired Friendsters Patent through MOL

Facebook bought the entire Friendster portfolio of patents in 2010. The eighteen patents had been transferred to MOL Global when it bought Friendster for about $39.5 million in 2009.

Friendster, the first social networking website, was launched by Jonathan Abrams in 2002. The Friendster patents, which date back to the early days of social networking, are incredibly broad. They cover things like making connections on a social network, friend-of-a-friend connections through a social graph, and social media sharing. Friendster had received its first patent back in 2006, when it was already on the decline. At the time, Friendster President Kent Lindstrom said the company had nearly forgotten it had ever applied for the patents, but added that “We’ll do what we can to protect our intellectual property.”

MOL Global, which is controlled by Vincent Tan, is said to have 3.5 million shares in Facebook as part of the patent acquisition deal. Assuming Facebook IPO price is set at US$40 a piece, this would translate to US$140mil (RM420mil), and even more after the listing.