Swiss trade marks practice on misleading geographical indications

Legal context: Geographical references in trade marks are often used not onlyto refer to a certain territory of origin for certain goodsor services, but also to evoke desirable associations, imaginations,emotions, or ideas. The strict practice of the Swiss Trade MarksOffice often requires applicants to limit their list of goodsand services to certain countries. Key points: This abstract discusses the issues of geographically suggestivetrade marks in Switzerland, the strict test used by the SwissTrade Marks Office often requiring the applicant to limit thelist of goods to a specific country, the new stance the formerAppeals Board took in this regard, and how it was struck downby the Swiss Supreme Court, confirming the strict test of theTrade Marks Office. Finally, the article gives a solution onhow the issue of geographical references in trade marks shouldbe treated in order to match reality. Practical significance: It is important to know that the Swiss Trade Marks Office appliesa strict test when it comes to geographical references in trademarks. Usually, the applicant is required to limit the listof goods, although it is questionable whether the trade markreally suggests that the goods stem from a certain country.Foreign decisions are not binding for the Swiss Trade MarksOffice and in this regard usually disregarded.     

Exploring the Justice of Punishments: Framing, Expressiveness, and the Just Prison Sentence

This paper examines views about the justice of punishments for offenders convicted of five major types of offenses—drug, violent, corporate, property, and victimless crimes. We focus on the just punishment and the just dispersion in the punishment distribution, together with observers' framing and expressiveness; and we test for interrespondent differences. Data are drawn from six U.S. samples interviewed in 1982, a probability sample of the adult population of a major city and samples of five special groups, prison inmates, police officers, law-school and high-school students, and Job Corps trainees. Respondents' judgments were obtained using Rossi's factorial survey method. Fictitious offenders were constructed by randomly combining offender, offense, and victim characteristics; and respondents used a line-matching technique to rate the justice of punishments randomly assigned to fictitious offenders. Analysis is guided by the framework for empirical justice analysis, which provides an integrated set of procedures for estimation and testing. Results indicate that respondents in all samples save one disagree with each other on the just punishment; and the six samples yield four distinct average orderings of just prison sentences. However, large majorities in all six samples find the dispersion in the punishments experimentally put into the vignette world to be too small relative to the just dispersion. More broadly, comparing the results obtained here from the probability sample of a major city with results from a comparable study on the justice of earnings, we find two interesting symmetries—approximately 1% of the general population is contrarian, regarding earnings as a bad and time in prison as a good; and approximately 92% to 94% of the population regard earnings inequality as too high and prison-time inequality as too low. Finally, this study provides additional evidence that the general population in the United States exhibits independence of mind informing their ideas about what constitutes the just earnings and the just punishment.     

在WTO框架下建立中国-东盟自由贸易区的法律规划探讨

WTO对区域经济一体化(含自由贸易区)持肯定的态度并有关于货物贸易、服务贸易、发展中国家的优惠待遇等相对完善的规范.中国-东盟自由贸易区的建立应在泛中国自由贸易区的基础上,遵循WTO的义务,利用发展中国家的优惠待遇,在合理的时间内建立和运作.     

海商法文化论略:基于“无单放货”问题的思考

具有浓郁实践性的海商法面临着众多产生于司法实践的困惑,其中备受理论界和司法实践困惑的大量的"无单放货"案件而引起的对提单法律属性的纷争是值得探讨的话题之一。"海商法文化"的提出是基于对"无单放货"行为的思考而展开的一种尝试。海商法文化的生成是渊源于对实践和理论上的困惑的解除,而成熟的海商法文化体系对于海商法的现代化具有决定性的价值。     

假冒注册商标罪司法实务问题探讨

认定假冒注册商标罪,需要对"同一种商品"、"相同的商标"、"使用"进行正确理解。行为人生产的产品既假冒了他人的注册商标,又属于伪劣产品的,构成假冒注册商标罪和生产、销售伪劣产品罪,成立牵连犯,应从一重处。     

公共产品和垄断产品的关系刍议

或出于政府职能,或由于投入成本太高,无利可图,私人企业不愿意提供公共产品只能由政府提供。久而久之,人们便认为公共产品必然由政府提供,形成公共产品的天然垄断性。是因为这种天然垄断性,使得公共产品与垄断产品易混为一谈。深入理解公共产品和垄断涵义,需要从二者的供给者、需求者、产品范围和供给方式四个方面加以区分。     

NUMBERS

正1.5% The year-on-year contraction of China’s power consumption in August,which is in stark contrast to the3-percent rise recorded in July and the 5.9-percent increase in June 6.1% The year-on-year growth rate of China’s fiscal revenue in August,which slowed from the6.9-percent rise seen in July     

台湾民间治安防范法治模式对大陆的借鉴意义

民间治安防范力量在大陆地区和台湾地区都发挥着重要作用。台湾民间治安防范工作取得了很好的社会效益,犯罪率明显下降,警民关系、邻里关系融洽,他山之石可以攻玉,希望大陆地区保留已有的先进经验的前提下,借鉴台湾地区的优秀工作成果,进一步完善大陆地区的民间治安防范力量。     

Is transparency an effective anti-corruption strategy? Evidence from a field experiment in India

Can freedom of information laws be harnessed by underprivileged members of society and used to obtain greater access to basic public goods that are otherwise attainable only through bribery? Drawing on a field experiment on access to ration cards among New Delhi's slum dwellers, we demonstrate that India's recently adopted freedom of information law is almost as effective as bribery in helping the poor to secure access to a basic public service. We find support for the theoretical proposition that greater transparency and voice lowers corruption even in highly hierarchical and unequal societies.     

2009～2010年中国-东盟货物贸易数量分析与预测——中国-东盟区域贸易数量分析年度报告之七

2009年中国-东盟贸易出现了1999年以来的首次负增长，但在第四季度双方贸易开始复苏，特别是最后两个月均出现了30％以上的增速。按国别看，本年中国与文莱及除柬埔寨之外的3个东盟新成员国的贸易增幅为正，其中，中越贸易增势突出，2009年越南超过菲律宾成为中国的第20大贸易伙伴，而中国与其余东盟6国的贸易都比2008年下滑。用Eviews检验分析显示，中、关、日、韩与东盟的贸易具有协整关系，相互关联。结合定性分析与数学模型，预测2010年的中国－东盟经贸合作将保持较高的增长势头。