FDA held a 3 hour webcast last week detailing its industry guidance on the new CGMP regulations. The webcast has been archived. To view the webcast at your leisure click here. FDA suggests using Internet Explorer to allow full navigation through the webcast.
Supplement companies with valuable trademarks should heed the advice of Jennifer Diaz, International Trade lawyer at Becker & Poliakoff (pictured left). The purpose of recording a trademark or copyright with U.S. Customs is to partner with U.S. Customs to prevent the unauthorized importation of merchandise which bears a recorded trademark or copyright. U.S. Customs prevents [...]
Norm Rich of Foley has penned two excellent articles on trademarks and service marks entitled Strength and value of US trademarks and service marks and Selecting trademarks and service marks that maximize protection and value on Nutraingredients-USA.com. The articles provide some useful guidelines for choosing arbitrary/fanciful marks or suggestive marks for optimal infringement protection.
Trade secret and patent protection for nutraceuticals. Can’t get more current than that. And three lawyers from Foley & Lardner provide info on both in a pair of articles published in the last week or so. First there’s “Keeping trade secrets under wrap” published on NUTRAingredientsUSA.com which points out, and rightfully so, that trade secrets [...]
JEC Nutrition, marketers of South African hoodia supplement H57 has sued CPMC, marketers of a competing hoodia supplement product that goes by the name X57, for trademark infringement. In an interesting twist related to a prior post on this blog, actor Joe Gannascoli, who plays Vito on the Sopranos, is now endorsing H57. Perhaps this [...]
This article entitled “Preserving intellectual property before a patent is issued” provides an excellent overview of the patent protection available to neutraceutical companies. The authors, James F. Ewing, Ph.D. and Michel Morency, Ph.D. of Foley & Lardner, suggest that “investment in solid intellectual property protection for key product brands and technology in the global marketplace…is [...]
