Trade law Part 41 in the United States

445
Trade Mark Law
International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law
Volume 37, Number 5, 2006 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW

446
Canada – Sup. Ct. – 25 Nov. 2005 – Trade mark law does not protect purely functional characteristics of a product after patents have expired – Doctrine of functionality – Tort of passing off – Trade Marks Act, Sec. 13(2) – 2005 SCC 65 – Kirkbi AG v. Ritvik Holdings Inc. – “Lego”
International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law
Volume 37, Number 5, 2006    p.605 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW

447
Nonpublic Information and California Tort Law: A Proposal for Harmonizing California’s Employee Mobility and Intellectual Property Regimes Under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act
Tait Graves
UCLA Journal of Law and Technology
Volume 10, Issue 1, Spring 2006 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW

448
Banks, unconscionability and economic duress — a small step towards deregulation?
Peter Gillies
Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice
Volume 17, Number 3, September 2006    p.177 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW
A bank extended credit to a company, taking security as it proceeded. The circumstances were unexceptionable. Nonetheless, the trial judge found that the bank had engaged in unconscionable conduct within the meaning of the general law, and had exercised economic duress. These findings were reversed on appeal. This article examines this decision — Australia and New Zealand Banking Group v Karam (2005) 64 NSWLR 149; [2006] ATPR 42-089 — and canvasses the scope of these doctrines, and examines a core issue: the extent to which economic pressure can ground a remedy in reliance upon these doctrines. This decision and the antecedent decision of the High Court in Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v CG Berbatis Holdings Pty Ltd (2003) 214 CLR 51 clarify the obligations on banks, commercial lessors and other service providers conventionally considered to have market power when dealing with small businesses and individuals. The decision in ANZ v Karam is also directly relevant to the interpretation of the unconscionable conduct provisions in the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) which import the general law doctrine of unconscionability.

449
Parallel Imports and Trade Marks: Where Are We? (Part 1)
GILL GRASSIE
European Intellectual Property Review
Volume 28, Issue 9, September 2006    p.474 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW
Discusses case law development since the ECJ Davidoff case which made it clear that unequivocal consent is needed before exhaustion occurs; considers the various legal challenges mounted by parallel importers since Davidoff and; assesses the current state of the law.

450
ULRICH MAGNUS (ed.), Global Trade Law. International Business Law of the United Nations and UNIDROIT Collection of UNCITRAL’s and UNIDROIT’s Conventions, Model Acts, Guides and Principles
KRYSTYNA KOWALIK-BANCZYK
Polish Yearbook of International Law
Volume 27, 2004-2005    p.218 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW

451
John J. Kirton and Michael J. Trebilcock (editors), Hard Choices, Soft Law: Voluntary Standards in Global Trade, Environment and Social Governance
Sebastien Jodoin
Review of European Community & International Environmental Law
Volume 15, Issue 2, 2006    p.238 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW

452
A Clash of Cultures? The UNESCO Diversity Convention and International Trade Law
Hahn, M.
Journal of International Economic Law
Volume 9, Number 3, September 2006    p.515-552 LAW JOURNAL / LAW REVIEW
The adoption, on 20 October 2005, of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Diversity Convention) has returned the limelight to the suitability of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules for cultural products. This article shows that the Diversity Convention, while an important step towards the recognition of cultural diversity as an internationally recognized public choice of states, does not affect the rights and obligations of WTO Members as such. The original purpose of the Convention was to create a safe haven for cultural policies and protect them from WTO disciplines. However, the central operative provision for bringing about the desired shielding effect for domestic policies safeguarding national cultural industries against foreign competition, its now-article 20, while making a general claim to non-subordination in paragraph 1, modifies this broad statement in paragraph 2 so as to only apply to treaties concluded at the same time or later. The article explores how to avoid or minimize an undesirable incongruence between liberal trade rules and the right of states to protect shelf-space for domestically produced cultural products.