IPR Seminar - SCCCI in collaboration with LJ Vernus

SAF Combined Rededication Ceremony 2015

This year's Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Day Combined Rededication Ceremony (CRC) ceremony was held at ITE Central and was graced by guest of honour, Minister for Social and Family Development, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin.

We should not take for granted the stability we enjoy in Singapore. LJ Vernus's team would like to take the opportunity to thank our servicemen and women for all the hard work and commitment that you have put in to keep Singapore safe!

More pictures here...

LJ VERNUS Promo Video

The Chinese New Year Edition

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The LJ Vernus team took some time off on Wednesday, 25 February 2015 for a hearty CNY lunch and lo hei session.

Also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, this major festival is celebrated by all Chinese around the world to mark the turn of a new year in the Chinese calendar. It is usually accompanied by a lo hei session, which is the tradition of ‘tossing up good fortune’ using Yu Sheng or Raw Fish Salad. Families and friends gather to toss the salad while saying auspicious well wishes out loud to usher in good luck. It is also believed the higher you toss the ingredients in the salad, the greater your fortunes will be.

This year, the team decided to have a lo hei session with a modern twist and held it at Fish and Co instead of the traditional Chinese restaurants.

Check out the snippets below which were taken during our team lunch!

Happy CNY from LJ Vernus!

The usual few and a warm welcome to our newest team member, Elynn, who is our in-house paralegal.

A typical lo hei salad consists of; white and green radish, carrots, capsicum, turnips, red pickled ginger, slices of raw salmon, prawns, crackers, topped with fragrant dressing of plum sauce, five spice powder and sesame oil.

Happy Holidays everyone

As 2014 comes to a close, we'd like to take a moment to reflect and count our blessings. It has been a tumultuous year due to many shocking events that took place all over the world. However, the human spirit is resilient and we have managed to survive these losses and look forward to a new year.

LJ Vernus would just like to thank our family, friends and colleagues for all the support they've shown this year. Granted, we might have only met for a brief while at a conference or we have only communicated via the phone and email, but each and every one of you are important in helping us pave our way to success.

We hope that 2014 have been a good year for you and we look forward to creating more meaningful relationships with not only family and friends, but also to our business partners.

With that, we'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The CSR Edition

What goes around, comes around.

In view of the upcoming festive season, LJ Vernus has taken some time off to slow down and do our part for charity. But this time, we have also engaged the participation of 2 other local companies to join us.

Together with Silver Negative Studios and Global Project Services, we have managed to purchase and deliver 24 cartons of basic commodities which included Milo, condensed milk and assorted jams for the residents of an old folks home. 

On the 9th December 2014, various members from each company headed down to the home with the commodities in tow. We also had the pleasure of touring the premises and meeting some of the residents there.

A banded effort

This year, LJ Vernus had decided to take CSR to another level. As a SME, we realize that we want to make a bigger impact on society, but due to the lack of resources, it is difficult for us to organize an elaborate CSR plan. This is where the Inter Business CSR Initiative comes into the picture. 

We aim to get more SMEs on board so that we can plan and execute bigger CSR initiatives such as fundraising days, donation drives, excursion trips and many more. Also, considering that most SMEs do not have a dedicated CSR department, we also aim to provide the infrastructure to save time and energy.

A stepping stone

We've decided on a simple donation drive as our first step. At the moment, there are 3 companies on board, being, LJ Vernus, Silver Negative Studios and Global Projects Services. As the new year approaches, we hope to add more companies via word of mouth and future marketing plans.

Here are some pictures from our December 9 charity drive!

PRESS RELEASE: Local SMEs team up for joint CSR initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

9 December 2014

Contact: Azimah Jailani, Marcom Executive

Phone: +65 6746 2858

Email: azimah@ljvernus.com

LOCAL SMES TEAM UP FOR JOINT CSR INITIATIVE

9 December 2014, SINGAPORE – LJ Vernus has teamed up with 2 local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Silver Negative Studios Pte Ltd and Global Projects Services Pte Ltd in their inaugural joint Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.

Initiated by LJ Vernus, the main aim of the movement is to not only contribute back to the society, but to also form a business network amongst SMEs in Singapore. The banding of multiple companies also provides more opportunities to carry out extensive charitable activities.

Earlier today, members from each company had made a trip to Ju Eng Home for the Senior Citizens to deliver some basic commodities. LJ Vernus hopes this this will be a good stepping stone to encourage more SMEs in Singapore to join in future charity initiatives.

Director of LJ Vernus, Mr Edward Jui, mentioned that, “I believe that many SMEs are already giving back to the society, but they want to make a bigger impact. By centralizing this, we save time spent on planning but still manage to execute bigger charity activities.”

LJ Vernus is an Intellectual Property firm specializing on trademark, providing expertise on trademark registration and prosecution services as well as integrated IPR solutions to businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Asia and around the world. For further information, please contact Azimah Jailani at +65 6746 2858.

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Intellectual Property Rights 101

Most people get confused over all the different categories of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and give up trying to understand it, much less try to apply for it. Then there are also those who lump IPR as one whole category and figured that it would be too costly and time consuming to protect this Intellectual Property thing.

But don't worry, we are here to save the day.

After much information consolidation, here's a simple infograph that explains the different types of IPR.

SMExpo 2014 Roundup!

The LJ Vernus team held our first booth exhibition during the SMExpo 2014 last week. A regular face to the expo every year, the team has decided to take it a step further this time in order to reach out and educate more companies regarding the importance of trademarking and brand protection.

The expo proved to be a successful venture and we got to meet up with many old and new partners. As we’ve gotten good feedbacks from the team and the turnout, LJ Vernus is looking at attending more of such conventions and we’ll be back again next year!

Check out some of our on-site photos below!

Do drop us a note to say hi if we met you at the SMExpo! Hope to see you at our next neworking event!

For more interesting news and updates on the current trademark industry, don't forget to follow us on our blog!

Press release: LJ VERNUS WILL BE ATTENDING THE ASIAN DOMAIN SUMMIT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7 August 2014                                                                                                                     

Contact: Azimah Jailani, Marcom Executive

Phone: +65 6746 2858

Email: azimah@ljvernus.com

LJ VERNUS WILL BE ATTENDING THE ASIAN DOMAIN SUMMIT

7 August 2014, SINGAPORE- LJ Vernus will be attending the Singapore version of the Asian Domain Summit on the 14^th August 2014.

Held at the Raffles Hotel, the Singapore leg of this event is a full day conference that primarily revolves around the domain registry industry. With 4 different summits taking places in Singapore, Xiamen, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively, the organizers, WebNIC and RegAsia, aims to educate businesses, trademark and brand owners about managing one's brand on the Internet.

With more companies going digital, business owners must understand that the protection of intellectual property rights of a brand has to encompass both online and offline venues.

Director of LJ Vernus, Edward Jui, remarked that, “While most organizations realize the importance of trademarking their brand, many business owners do not have a holistic protection strategy set in place. In many cases, they fail to monitor their online assets which may result in the dilution of their trademark rights.”

For more information on LJ Vernus’s participation in this event, do visit http://bit.ly/1m4DvlU

LJ Vernus is an Intellectual Property firm specializing on trademark, providing expertise on trademark registration and prosecution services as well as integrated IPR solutions to businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Asia and around the world. For further information, please contact Azimah Jailani at +65 6746 2858.

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LJ Vernus supports our Singapore Armed Forces

Updates on the Chinese Trademark Law

photo by VAYardley CC by

The third amendments to the Chinese Trademark Law recently came into force on 1 May 2014. The key amendments are set out below:

• Time limits are set for CTMO and TRAB to examine cases.  For example, trademark applications should be examined within 9 months and opposition cases within 12 months.  This is a vast improvement from the previous practice where trademark cases could take years to advance.

• E-Filing and Multi-Class Filings are now available in China.
  

• In line with China’s efforts to curb trademark infringement activities, more severe punishment against infringement are introduced.  For example, maximum statutory damages has been increased to RMB3,000,000.  Punitive damages are available where the infringement activity is “serious”.

• China now accepts non-conventional marks, namely, sound and colour combination marks, as registrable trademark.  Sound marks include ring-tones, animal sounds, etc.

• Limitation of rights to commence opposition action; only those who “own prior rights” or who is an “interested party” may initiate proceedings.  With this provision, the previous practice of opposing a mark based on unrelated party’s registered mark will no longer be permitted, unless the opponent can show that it is an interested person.

• Imposing burden on trademark rights holders to provide evidence of three years’ prior use when seeking damages.  The new law also explicitly provide courts to grant preliminary injunctions within 48 hours.

• Use of the words “well-known mark” on products, product packaging or containers or in advertisements, exhibitions or other commercial activities is now prohibited.  Declaration of well-known status of a mark may be sought in the event of disputes.

The new law clearly shows China commitments towards building a strong and responsive IPR regime, although many uncertainties on the implementation of the amendments exist.  Nonetheless, we are hopeful that foreign trademark owners may now be in a better footing when dealing with infringers in China, and business owners would face a more efficient registry when seeking trademark registration in China.

Deputy Minister Aung Zaw Min highlighted importance of IPR in Myanmar

A robust Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infrastructure is critical for businesses seeking to sell their trademarked products/services in Myanmar. The government of Myanmar has recently acknowledged the importance of IPR in a discussions on industrial design rights bill. Read more here...

Myanmar looks set to modernize its IPR framework which currently do not conform to international standards. Presently, there is no specific trademark legislation in Myanmar and trademark rights are "acquired" through registration of Cautionary Notice published at local newspapers and proof of use of the mark.

The government acknowledgement is a positive development but it remains to be seen if they have the political wills in implementing the necessary reforms.

Your newly created logo or brand name does not qualify as a trademark!

The Dilemma?

Consider this scenario: You came up with a killer brand name for your new products. You spent tons of money marketing and promoting your products bearing the brand name. Your market shares explodes and now you decide its time to protect the goodwill you have painfully generated in the brand name over the past year. You file an application for registration for the brand name, only to be rejected by the Trade Mark Office on grounds of non-distinctiveness.

The above could be avoided if proper research has been made prior to committing to the brand name. When selecting a new brand name for your products or services, it is important to strike a balance between marketability and distinctiveness:

• Marketability helps maximises market exposure for your products or services. 
• Distinctiveness makes it easy for consumers to associate a product or service with your company. 

A distinctive brand name can be registered as a trademark.

In practice, it is often difficult to achieve a right balance between marketability and distinctiveness; the most marketable mark always tends to be the least distinctive, and vice versa. By applying basic trademark principles, you can ensure that your brand name is both marketable and distinctive.

Is your brand name distinctive?

For a mark to be registrable, it must not be devoid of any distinctive character. To determine distinctiveness, trademarks may be generally classified into the following categories (listed from most to least distinctive):

Fanciful mark 

Fanciful mark is inventively-coined and has no meaning. STARBUCKS and EXXON are examples of such marks. Fanciful trademark is considered the most distinctive and is afforded the greatest protection.

Arbitrary mark 

Arbitrary mark comprises common word which is used in a manner that their normal meaning bears no relation to the products or services to which they are applied. APPLE for computers and DIESEL for clothing are examples of arbitrary marks.

Suggestive mark 

Suggestive mark tends to relate to the quality or characteristic of the products or services, although a consumer would have to exercise some degree of imagination in order to determine the characteristic of the products / services. 7-ELEVEN for convenience store is an example of a suggestive mark.

Fanciful, arbitrary and suggestive marks are easy to register as there is no apparent connection between the mark and the products or services. However, it is often difficult to market these marks as more effort is required to convey the qualities of the products or services to the general public.

Descriptive mark 

A descriptive mark directly describes the quality or characteristic of the products / services. Examples of descriptive marks include Denim for jeans or trade marks containing laudatory terms such as BEST and SUPERIOR. A descriptive mark is prima facie unregistrable, but may become registerable upon substantial use.

Descriptive mark is the easiest to market since they simply describe the products / services they are marketed with. However, registering descriptive mark is often costly as it is routinely objected by Trade Marks offices. 

Generic mark 

Generic mark consists of common names for the products or services with which it is used. Generic mark is unprotectable since they are incapable of differentiating products or services of one trader from another.

Striking the Balance

When choosing your brand name, primary consideration should be given to mark that is sufficiently distinctive (to qualify for registration) and yet easily marketable. Finding this balance can be time-consuming. However, the reward of pairing marketability and distinctiveness ensures marketing ease and appropriate legal protection for your trademark.

LJ Vernus is now on Blogger!

2013 has been an exciting and refreshing year for LJ Vernus so-far : achieving ISO 9001:2008 standards in March, revamping our Wordpress blog site, setting up Google Plus +LJ Vernus since April, and now Blogger!

Trademark rights are important assets to any businesses.  We hope these online platforms will be useful in sharing industry knowledge and latest updates with our clients and like-minded people.

In the meantime, you are cordially invited to visit our official website at www.ljvernus.com to find out more about our firm's expertise in Asia.