Firm

The European Commission, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the relevant national authorities recently agreed on a number of measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 disruptions on the conduct of inspections at manufacturing sites or other sites relevant to medicinal products in the European Union. These are included in the Notice to stakeholders: Questions and answers on regulatory expectations for medicinal products for human use during the COVID-19 pandemic, https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/human-use/docs/guidance_regulatory_covid19_en.pdf.

On January 15 2020, US President Donald Trump and Chinese vice-premier He Liu signed a trade agreement which President Trump has described as "the biggest deal anybody has ever seen." The deal promises to be the first phase of a larger new trade agreement between the US and China, announcing a significant de-escalation in the trade war between the two giants that has dragged along for more than one year. Of particular interest to those in the pharmaceutical industry will be Sections C and D of the first chapter of the trade agreement, which outline China's commitments to improve protection and enforcement of pharmaceutical-related patent rights, and in particular to creating an effective mechanism for early resolution of patent disputes between generic drug companies and pharmaceutical innovators, or a Chinese drug patent linkage system, as many may like to put it.

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented crisis resulting in the Indian government clamping down on the movement of people, goods and services. This has had an impact on every facet of business and has encouraged consumers to focus on their health and well-being. With social distancing becoming the "new normal", the impact of coronavirus on brick-and-mortar stores during the lockdown phase and post lifting of stay-at-home orders is likely to be profound. It is expected that consumers will avoid close interaction and crowded places such as malls and supermarkets in times to come. Thus, in the short to medium term, consumers' shopping habits will witness a gradual but definite shift from brick and mortar stores to online portals and e-stores. Brands in India are therefore increasingly focusing on setting up their own e-stores, creating arrangements and partnerships with online portals. Big offline stores such as Future Group (Easy Day and Big Bazaar), Spencer's Retail, Metro Cash & Carry and Walmart's Best Price stores have increased efforts to service customers online, building a comprehensive model to deliver groceries and goods. Many stores have started to partner with food delivery platforms such as Swiggy, taxi-hailing app Uber Eats, and bike taxi startup Rapido. This article focuses on how brands' sudden shift to online will need a strategic focus in terms of building a brand protection strategy.

The city of Manila was placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) on March 16 2020 and all government offices and private businesses except those providing essential services, were required to work from home or closed. Public transportation was suspended, and everyone was required to practise social distancing and wear face masks.

Almost a year and a half after Myanmar enacted the Trademark Law 2019 on January 30 2019, the same question still lingers in the minds of many brand owners and attorneys: "When will the Trademark Law come into force?"

While Vietnam, like the rest of the world, has been focusing on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese courts have quietly recorded new milestones in the judgment of patent cases. One of those milestones came on March 12 2020, in a decision on appeal settlement issued by the Superior People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City against a provincial court's decision on suspension of a patent case.