As illustrated in the Glaxo court case, the Canada Revenue Agency reasessed Glaxo Canada for its 1990-1993 tax years. This was done, because according to the Canada Revenue agency Glaxo paid a sister Swiss company in Europe C$ 1,512-C$1,651 per kilogram for randitidine, a component in ulcer drug Zantac while other generic drug manufacturers paid C$194-304 per kilogram ranitidine.
In the United Nations Statistics for 2011, five Asian countries were included in the list of the 25 largest consumer markets. These countries – India, Japan, China, South Korea, and Indonesia – among other Asian countries have become prized destinations for companies to launch new brands and products.
Facebook announced plans for an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company circa 75 billion euros. At the end of 2011, Facebook had a private equity of almost 3.9 billion euros at a balance total of 4.9 billion euros. These are impressing numbers, but it takes a lot of fantasy to point out the market value at 75 billion euros.
If, for example, a cell phone company in the EU came out with a universal adaptor product, who decides the regulations surrounding the use of the adaptor? It could potentially mean lots of patents on different variations of adaptors produced around the EU and with that comes new patent standards that must be put in place.
The World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement defines counterfeit as “any goods, including packaging, bearing without authorization a trademark which is identical to the trademark validly registered in respect of such goods, or which cannot be distinguished in its essential aspects from such a trademark, and which thereby infringes the rights of the owner of the trademark in question under the law of the country of importation”. Pirated goods, on the other hand, “shall mean any goods which are copies made without the consent of the right holder or person duly authorized by the right holder in the country of production and which are made directly or indirectly from an article where the making of that copy would have constituted an infringement of a copyright or a related right under the law of the country of importation.”
