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Intellectual Property Law

: IPKat

Bona vacantia again

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

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This morning the IPKat asked on behalf of a friend for helpful comments about buying ownerless trade marks as bona vacantia. Apart from the seven comments posted so far at the foot of the original post, the IPKat has already received well over 40 emails -- some quite long and technical and all quite interesting -- about the acquisition of ownerless or abandoned trade marks. Remarkably, this e-postbag is bulging with contributions from four different continents too, and fresh correspondence is still arriving.

Right: could this be one of the original owners?

The IPKat says thanks to all of you and promises to stitch together a selection of the wisdom he has received on the issue, so that it can be shared with all his readers. If you've written in but don't get a personal acknowledgement, please don't take it amiss. Merpel says, from what she's been reading in the IPKat's in-tray it looks as though buying ownerless trade marks from the State is not rare or unusual activity but a pretty routine exercise of professional skill. She wonders, though, that if so many people want to buy these marks and are prepared to pay a decent price for them, can it be assumed that they are more valuable in their new owners' hands than in the possession of whoever previously owned them?

Full post as published by IPKat on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).