Expert Analysis

The idea of intellectual property as tradable and bankable assets is an alluring one. Singapore, one of several cities in the region looking to position itself as an IP hub, looks to popularise the use of IP as collateral with its IP financing scheme. Peter Leung reports

Yujie Jin of Liu Shen & Associates explains the elements of Chinese patent law that deal with common knowledge, and gives advice on dealing with them during substantive examination

Aminiasi Vulaono and Artika Prasad of Pacific Islands Intellectual Property Services (PIIPS) discuss the challenges faced by developing countries in modernising their IP legislation, and bring us up to date with patent filing changes in Western Samoa

Hsiu-Ru Chien and Shih-I Wu of Lee and Li describe jointly-owned patent regulations under the Taiwan Patent Act and court practices in relevant disputes

Everything is set to change in Europe in the next few years, with launch of the Unitary Patent and UPC; the revision of the Trade Marks Directive and CTM Regulation; the harmonisation of trade secrets protection; and the updating of copyright law. This Europe IP Focus includes articles on many of these developments, as well as pressing issues in IP practice in the region.

GUIs in handheld devices are becoming more important, but remain hard to patent at the EPO. Anders Hansson of Awapatent suggests ways to avoid valuable research and development disappearing into the hands of the competition