ZADNA in action; Latest IP&T
The IPKat's IP/IT savvy friend Daniel Greenberg (daniel@greenberg.co.za) writes: "I wanted to bring to your attention the implementation of the ADR for .co.za domain names. The link to the administrative body ZADNA is http://www.zadna.org.za/adr/. Ironically ZADNA have not registered zadna.co.za. It is available at present but I am sure its registration has been blocked by Uniforum (http://co.za), the Registry for co.za.Thanks, Daniel, for keeping the IPKat informed. And well done, ZADNA (says Merpel), in coming up with such a bright, cheerful and seriously effective logo.
The ADR is unique in that is defines "rights" and "registered rights" to include IPR, commercial, cultural, linguistic, religious and personal rights protected under SA Law, but is not limited thereto. It appears at first glance that they have incorporated constitutional elements into the ADR".
The May 2007 issue of the IPKat's black and shiny Intellectual Property and Technology Cases, published by LexisNexis Butterworths as a paper-based handmaiden to its electronic service, has now reached his rain-saturated letterbox. There are five cases in this issue, drawn from a wide range of topics. They include
* Northern Foods plc v DEFRA (Queen's Bench Division, England and Wales), a 2005 decision of Mr Justice Crane on an application for judicial review of the government's designation of a disputed territory as the sole zone within which pork pies might be termed "Melton Mowbray".* Phones 4U Ltd v Phone4u.co.uk Internet Ltd, an extremely confusing Court of Appeal decision in a passing-off action that (among other things) clarified the scope of the One in a Million "instrument fraud" doctrine that has enabled trade mark owners to pounce on (mainly but by no means always) naughty aliens registering those marks as parts of domain names. The court also affirmed the limits to trade mark protection where the owner has limited its registration to a specific set of colours only.
* Nokia Corporation v InterDigital Technology Corporation, a more recent Court of Appeal decision relating to the jurisdiction of the courts to entertain an application for a declaration that certain patent licences were not essential for compliance with internationally-agreed technical standards.
